Der Spatz vom Wallrafplatz

The sparrow from Wallraf Square is the title of a German television series, which was the late 1960s and early 1970s broadcast by WDR in 36 episodes of 28 minutes.

Concept and design, the series

The idea for the series was conceived by Armin Maiwald, the makers of " The Show with the Mouse", and the puppeteer Rudolf Fischer. A sparrow with Berlin past settles on a plane at the Wallraf Square within sight of the WDR broadcasting center and takes from there trips to all sorts of persons, professions and places to explore all these representative for the child audience. In this way, the child-friendly - naive " Sparrow from Wallrafplatz " one of the most popular figures of identification German children's television in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The first episode was aired on 9 September 1969.

The figure of the sparrows was played and spoken by the well-known puppeteers Rudolf Fischer. Fischer began his career at the Hohnsteiner puppet with Max Jacob and later found with his own puppet theater to a distinctive style of play, its peace and quiet humor in the presentation of " Sparrow from Wallrafplatz " featured. There were sparrows total of eight times - seven times as a puppet and once as part of remote-controlled stick figure.

The novelty of this presentation was the parting of the doll from the stage and studio situation. The film was shot entirely on location, mainly in the city center of Cologne. This form of shooting was the sparrow recipe for success and his downfall at the same time: After 36 episodes, the puppet was so famous that their appearance immediately led to a large accumulation of onlookers who obstructed the shooting to the impossibility. So the sparrow ultimately went to one of his own popularity.

The mid-1980s came the " Sparrow from Wallrafplatz " again to restore the screen and served as (this time silent ) an extra in a produced by WDR music movie Black Fööss: For the song " The Mösch " ( kölsch for " The Sparrow " ) of Willi Ostermann buzzed the puppet to the historically -clad musicians of the dialect band.

Also the shape of the two computer-animated sparrows, which give rise to the beginning of the WDR satirical program Mitternachtsspitzen your comment Month events, inspired by the fellows from Wallraf Square.

Contributors

  • Director: Armin Maiwald
  • Production: Close Up, FLASH film production
  • Book: Armin Maiwald and Rudolf Fischer
  • Editors: Gert K. Münterfering
  • Camera (color): Frieder Wagner
  • Music: Manfred Schoof
  • Puppeteer and spokesman of the " sparrows ": Rudolf Fischer
  • Starring: Rudolf Debiel, Günter Dybus, Eberhard Feik et al

Publication

Since May 24, 2013 32 of 36 episodes originally ARD video released on DVD.

Swell

  • One of the puppets is now in the puppet theater collection of the Piccolo Puppet, another in the exhibition pavilion of the dolls Bensberg, the last of the Sparrow player Rudolf Fischer workplace. There you will also find further records of the origin of the television series.
  • Retro TV, Episode 68: The Sparrow from Wallraf Square.
September 9 Die Sendung mit der Maus Humour Marionette Television studio Computer Generated Imagery Puppenpavillon Bensberg
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