Schroeder (Peanuts)

Schroeder (Peanuts)

Schroeder is a fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. He is distinguished by his precocious skill at playing the toy piano, as well as by his love of classical music and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven in particular. Schroeder is also the catcher on Charlie Brown's baseball team, though he is always seen walking back to the mound with the baseball, never throwing it—admitting in one strip he didn't want the other team to discover his lack of ability. He is also the object of the unrequited infatuation of Lucy van Pelt, who constantly leans on Schroeder's piano. Charlie Brown, Sally Brown, Peppermint Patty, Frieda and Snoopy are also occasionally depicted as leaning on Schroeder's piano.

After Linus and Snoopy, Schroeder is probably Charlie Brown's closest friend; he once angrily berated Violet for giving Charlie Brown a used valentine well after Valentine's Day had come and gone, only to be undercut when Charlie Brown eagerly accepted it. Schroeder also joined Linus in dressing down the girls (Lucy, Patty, Violet and Frieda) and Snoopy in Charlie Brown's All-Stars, when it was discovered Charlie Brown wouldn't sacrifice the girls and Snoopy just to get uniforms for the baseball team. He also is one of the few players who has any respect for Charlie Brown as a manager; however, he is as capable of ire at Charlie Brown's poor performance as anyone else, but these instances are few and far between. In one game, when Frieda desperately asked Schroeder; "Wouldn't you like just once to see Charlie Brown hit that ball?", Schroeder's calm reply was; "No, I am not prepared to have the world come to an end".

He was voted as an honorary member of the Epsilon Iota chapter at Florida State University of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity, the oldest and largest music fraternity in the world. A stained glass window in New York's Buffalo Westminster Presbyterian Church honoring Albert Schweitzer has a corner showing Schroeder playing his toy piano. In honor of Schroeder's passion for Beethoven, the Charles M. Schulz Museum (Santa Rosa) and the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies announced the launching in December 2009 of a permanent online exhibit of 60 of the 300 Schulz's cartoons that involve Schroeder and Beethoven: "Schulz's Beethoven, Schroeder's Muse" (accessible through the website www.americanbeethovensociety.org).