Two stories from my students about this fascinating cultural theatre. Thanks Kerstin and Sonja – I loved both of them.  Bruce

The Augsburger Doll-Box  – Kerstin

Walter Oehmichen was the promoter of the Augsburger Doll_Box in 1943.

He built the Theater with help from his family (his wife and his two daughters).

They lived and worked in Augsburg.

The big dream of Mr. Oehmichen was creating a Theater with Marionettes and to put all the Marionettes he used for the Theater in one small Box.

So he built own Marionettes with his family and called the first Theater ‘Puppenschrein’.

In 1944 a big fire burned down this Theater after a bombing raid. So he promoted a new Theater in an old historical Building named ‘the holy ghost Spital’ on 26.02.1948. He named the new Theater: ‘The Augsburger Doll-Box’.

Today the Theater is at the same Adress and in the same Building that it has been in 1948.

This year (2013) the Theater is celebrating it´s 65 jubilee.

In 1953 Mr. Oehmichen started to produce some Theater-representations for children on TV. Some of the fairy tale representations are: Jim Knopf, Urmel out of the Ice (this is my favourite), Urmel is playing in the castle, small King Kalle Wirsch, the Opodeldocks and many more.

Nowadays the Theater is also playing Marionette-representations for adults. The fairy tales for adults are: The escape out of Serail (Mozart) or the ‘Three-Pence-Opera’ (Dreigroschenoper) .

Story about “Augsburger Puppenkiste”   Sonja
The “Augsburger Puppenkiste” is now a world famous puppet theatre in Germany.
In 1940, the soldier Walter Oehmichen was billeted in a school near Calais and discovered a
small puppet theatre. He entertained his comrades with the puppet theatre, and the dream of
his own puppet theater was born.
In 1943 – in his home town, Augsburg, he founded the family business with his wife.
Originally it was a small puppet theatre, called “Puppenschrein – Puppet shrine”. A small
stage, which could be set up into a door frame. At the end of the Second World War the small
stage was destroyed in a bombing raid. Only one rosette of the old shrine remained hole. The
players/main stars of the theatre – the puppets – were preserved.
After the war, the puppet theatre was rebuilt in the historic Holy Spirit Hospital of Augsburg.
In 1948 the puppet theatre was called “Augsburger Puppenkiste” for the first time. The
name/brand is a contraction of the founding city – Augsburg – and a puppet box. After the war
the newly founded puppet theatre that itself of fitting into one easily transportable box. Thus
was born the “Augsburger Puppenkiste” with it’s name stamped proudly on the box top.
In the TV productions from the late 1950s on, the box covers were even used as part of the
show..
At first Walter Oehmichen carved the marionettes himself, but soon gave this important task to his daughter Hannelore. Under her talented hands all the famous “Stars on string” were created. Her first major figure was the little prince. Oehmichens wife Rose dressed the dolls and took over the voirce parts for many mother and grandmother roles
In 1973 – on the 25th Jubilee Hannelore and her husband Hans-Joachim took over the puppet theatre. Walter Oehmichen died in 1977. Rose Oehmichen died in 1985 and her daughter Hannelore became proprietor of the puppet theater.
In 1992, Klaus Marshall son of Hannelore and Hans-Joachim took over the puppet theatre. In 1999 Hans-Joachim died. Hannelore carved the figures until her death in 2003 and was always ready to help in the productions. Her second son took on the task of making the dolls.
In October 2000, a new theatre was built opposite the old stage, because the old theatre was too small.
In 2004, the Augsburger puppet theatre was awarded the Golden Camera.
Many of the classic myths, not only those of the Brothers Grimm, are put on in the puppet theatre. Since 21 January 1953 the puppet theatre has become known nationwide through TV productions such as
„Jim Knopf and Lukas the engine driver” (1961/62, 1976), “Urmel on Ice” (196

OK – so how safe is your password??

How long will it take for hackers to crack your password | WiredCPU.com.

I have often “discussed” with my partner about how to do the washing up (that’s Spulen to my German friends) – I like to put it in a plastic bowl and wash them up; rinsing with water before putting it onto the drainer, my partner likes to wash under running hot water –  now maybe I will be a little more creaful- read the article to see why 🙂

Woman killed partners dad and cut up body – The Local.

Hi all – I visited Wurzburg on Saturday. What a great city – a nice mix of old and new – good transport that runs right through the city centre. Beautiful river –  shopping laid out with nice market squares and interesting buildings – it makes Frankufrt look like the absolutely boring place it is.

They have it right in Wurzburg – I’m a fan now.

Now how about this for good news? Give yourselves a pat on the back all you Germans. You can truly feel good about yourselves and your country. I salute you and take my hat off to you!! Well done!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22624104

BBC poll: Germany most popular country in the world

A majority of people polled on all continents said Germany had a positive influence on the world

Germany is the most positively viewed nation in the world in this year’s annual Country Ratings Poll for the BBC World Service.

More than 26,000 people were surveyed internationally for the poll.

They were asked to rate 16 countries and the European Union on whether their influence in the world was “mainly positive” or “mainly negative”.

Germany came out top with 59% rating it positively. Iran was once again the most negatively viewed.

Global views of Europe’s biggest country have improved significantly in 2013, according to the poll.

It was conducted for the BBC by GlobeScan and PIPA, who conducted face-to-face and telephone interviews with randomly selected people, mainly in urban centres, in 25 countries around the globe.

View of India deteriorates

A three-point increase in Germany’s average rating returned it to the top of the BBC list, displacing Japan, which saw its positive ratings drop from 58% to 51%, and fell from first to fourth place overall.

The UK saw a bigger increase in positive ratings than any other country and climbed to third place in the table, in the wake of its hosting of the 2012 Olympics.

The poll also indicates that positive views of China and India have fallen sharply around the world over the last year. After improving for several years, views of China have sunk to their lowest level since polling began in 2005, putting it in ninth position.

India is ranked 12th, with negative views (35%) slightly outnumbering positive ones (34%) for the first time.

But Germany, whose economy has done better than almost every other in Europe in recent years, scored well across the world in the poll.

In Ghana, 84% of people polled said Germany’s influence was mainly positive, while 81% in neighbouring France and 76% in Australia felt the same. The big exception to the trend was in recession-hit Greece, where a majority of people polled gave Germany negative ratings.

Positive views of the EU dropped to their lowest level last year but have stabilised this year, rising one point to 49% on average.

But this figure masks significant changes. There has been a sharp drop in positive ratings by Germans, down 14 points to 59%. Canadians and Americans both give significantly lower ratings to the EU. In the UK, positive views of the EU continue to fall steadily and, for the first time this year, more Britons rate it negatively (47%) than positively (42%).

Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and Iran came out worst in terms of how they are viewed globally. Only 15% of respondents said they saw Iran as having a mainly positive influence.