Elisabeth "Ellis" Kaut the writer:
Elisabeth “Ellis” Kaut (17 November 1920 – 24 September 2015) was a German author of children’s literature, best known for her creation of Pumuckl, a kobold appearing in radio plays and TV series. She also published novellas and some illustrated books. She supervised children’s programmes at Bayerischer Rundfunk, but was also active as a painter and photographer. In a 2010 interview, Ellis Kaut said that writing was always hard work for her. Her last place of residence was in the district of Pasing in Munich. She died after a long illness on 24 September 2015, aged 94, in a nursing home near Fürstenfeldbruck.
Meister Eder und sein Pumuckl (English: Master Eder and his Pumuckl) is a German children’s series created by Ellis Kaut. Originally a radio play series of the Bavarian Radio in 1961, the stories were later adapted into books, a successful TV series of the same name, three films and a musical.
Plot summary:
Pumuckl is a red-haired Kobold and descendant of the Klabautermänner. He is invisible to people around him except for the master carpenter Eder with whom Pumuckl lives. Pumuckl is one of the most popular characters in children’s entertainment in Germany and several generations have now grown up with the cheeky but funny little Kobold.
Being a descendant of the Klabautermann people, who were sailors, Pumuckl loves everything that has to do with the ocean, especially sailboats. For reasons unknown, he gets lost in Bavaria, where no ships are to be found. The workshop belongs to elderly Meister Eder. It is precisely the fact that the workshop is untidy which seals Pumuckl’s fate. He gets stuck on an overflowing pot of glue. It is a rule among Kobolds that whenever one of his kind gets stuck to something manmade, they become visible, and according to the rules of their ancestors, must stay with the human who sees them, in this case Meister Eder. At first, Meister Eder is reluctant to take in the kobold, since he is quite content on his own, but Pumuckl makes it clear that he has no other choice. A deep friendship soon blossoms between the elderly man and the cheeky kobold.
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