Hurra, hurra, der Pumuckl ist wieder da!

Pumuckl is 50 years. Happy Birthday little Klabautermann! Pumuckl
the red-haired hero from a german serie called "Meister Eder und
sein Pumuckl" is celebrating his birthday. The character was invented
by Ellis Kaut. They also produced Radio-Plays, Stories, three movies
and a musical with Pumuckl. He is the most popular character in
german children-entertainment for several generations.

Source: pumuckl726orf.jpg

Pumuckl is a little undutiful fella driven by his mood swings and
doing a lot of monkeyshines. He is sometimes like a mischievous
child and from time to time very selfish as well. So no wonder that
children relate to him. The carpenter Meister Eder, an old man living
alone, find one day the little kobold who is stuck on one of his glue
pot. Thus he sees Pumuckl although Klabautermänner are invisible.
From this day on Pumuckl is bonded to stay with him – so say the
Klabauter law. Pumuckl gives him a lot of troubles and is singing
his pesky poetries.

But hey, what the heck is a "Klabautermann"?

We had to do a little research on this. According to some information
sources a Klabautermann is a kind of ship-ghost or a water-kobold.
The vocable is related to an old german word "klabastern" which means
"poltern" or "rumpeln" (to rumble). The word "Poltergeist" is coming
from this and you can see it in the word "Rumpelstilzchen" (in english:
Rumpelstiltskin).

Other sources imply that there is a relation to arab roots: "kalfatern"
or "kalfaten". In French the word is known as "calfater", while English
is using "to caulk" or "to calk". It's an old handcraft to repair the
boats with a Kalfathammer. According to maritime superstitions the
Klabautermänner are living on boats. They like to hoax the sailors- and
fishermen, give the captain a warning of dangers of the sea and they
are knocking when the boat has a leak.

On this Pumuckl Fanpage you can find interesting informations
about the little guy and Klabautermänner.
http://www.pumucklhomepage.de

Special note: Keep your eyes opened, Sunday's children.
Klabautermänner are not invisible to you, you ought to
see them...