2024-04-30 08:31:52
Opinion “The Little Witch”
The 1950s could be so anti-authoritarian
Status: 30.04.2024 | Reading time: 2 minutes
According to the files, just too young: Preußler’s little witch
Quelle: picture alliance / dpa
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When magic still helped, the witches rode to the Blocksberg on Walpurgis Night to “practice a lot of devilry”. This is what Otfried Preußler’s classic children’s book “The Little Witch” tells about. If you look closely, you will find sheer rebelliousness in it.
When magic still helped, April 30th was a very special date. For one night the Brocken was called Blocksberg, and the witches appeared to, as an early 17th century text says, “practice a lot of devilry / so that they might offend people a lot”.
Over time, however, the anarchic Walpurgis Night has become quite dissipated. In Otfried Preußler’s classic children’s book “The Little Witch” from 1957, the witch council has shrunk to a narrow-minded authority that insists on the strictest observance of rules for the sake of formerly ruleless pleasure. No matter how much Preußler’s little witch may want to be part of the witch dance: at 127 years old, according to the files, she is simply far too young for that!
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But the highlight of Preußler’s story is that the little witch in her is the only real witch. By violating the ban and riding up the Blocksberg without permission on Walpurgis Night, she is doing “a lot of devilry” in the witches’ style, which means she is also “a lot of insulting” to the various senior, junior and weather witches according to all the rules of witchcraft.
Watch out, magic!
The resentful Mum Rumpumpel, the sadistic mountain witches, the tyrannical, perhaps even patriarchal head witch can no longer contain themselves because of their indignation. Anyone reading this today will sometimes rub their eyes: What? Could the German 1950s be so anti-authoritarian?
Perhaps it is all the more worrying that Otfried Preußler’s “The Little Witch” is currently being talked about again. A Bavarian school, for example, no longer wants to be called after Preußler, which its witch council – no: its management – justifies not only with the young Preußler’s involvement in National Socialism, but also with the fact that Preußler solves problems magically in his children’s books – even though Magic hasn’t helped for a long time!
The fear of a lack of realism in the case of the little witch is actually completely unfounded. Because the good lady doesn’t even ride up the Blocksberg to do magic. She celebrates Walpurgis Night out of pure rebelliousness.
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