Augsburger Puppenkiste - TV Productions

TV Productions

As of 1953 the Augsburger Puppenkiste gained popularity throughout Germany: Only a few weeks after the premier of the Tagesschau, aired the first television programme showing the tale of Peter and the Wolf on 21 January. The show was reenacted in the Bunker of the NWDR in Hamburg and was broadcast live due to the lack of recording technology. So were the following shows which were produced by the Hessische Rundfunk in the Frankfurt television studios until 1954. Since the HR dropped its children's programme between 1956 and 1959, the Bayerische Rundfunk was another stop along the way of the Puppenkiste. However, after the relaunch HR offered the in-house writer Manfred Jenning to realize the concept of a series (Die Geschichte der Muminfamilie) and the Puppenkiste returned to its original station.

While the first TV productions of the Augsburger Puppenkiste were mere recordings of theatre productions, they soon turned into elaborate motion pictures/ movies/ (feature) films. On every day of the filming, only three to four minutes of actual film were produced. Because of the spot lights, the temperature in the temporary studio went up to around 60°C, and so the job/ filming literally brought the sweat to the brows of the manipulators. From then on/ because of that, the filming took no longer place in the temporary studio (anyone knows if that was still the bunker?/ dugout?), but in the lobby/ foyer of the Augsburger Puppenkiste theatre. Manfred Henning did not only write the scripts for the films, but also worked as/ functioned as (the) director. It was under his direction, that the recorded theatre productions turned into films, which tapped the full potential of 1960s film production/ the 1960s filmmaking/ filmmaking at the time. The TV series soon became independent projects and were thus separated from the theatre productions. This is the reason why the famous TV stars were never actually seen on stage in Augsburg.