Voiced by Gordon Piedesack, Bernd Schmitt, Bettina Zech, Ava Menger et al.
City history is rarely really exciting, especially for children. But it really only depends on how you package the history lesson. Bernd Schmitt has found a very good way to convey history to children in an entertaining, amusing, exciting and informative way with his "Stadtgeschichten mit Harry und Waldemar". In their first adventure, Harry the rabbit finds himself in Frankfurt am Main. When he receives an invitation to Sachsenhausen from his friend Stupsi Stubbytail, he asks the wise long-eared owl Waldemar to allow him to use his magic mirror for the journey.
Waldemar does allow him to do so, but he warns the rabbit that he must be very careful with the mirror. For it not only transports one from one place to another, but also through time. And if you don't concentrate properly, you can easily end up in the wrong year. At first everything goes smoothly. Harry meets Stupsi in Sachsenhausen and together they visit the Senckenberg Museum. But when there is turbulence there and the two have to leave quickly, the next trip goes wrong. They land, as planned, at the Hauptwache. And so begins an exciting adventure that will take Harry and Stupsi to other important places in Frankfurt's city history...
"Stadtgeschichten mit Harry und Waldemar" is a very endearingly realized history lesson for children. Harry the rabbit's voice is a bit reminiscent of Sid from the Ice Age films, but he is charming and funny enough for the little ones to quickly take him to their hearts. On his adventurous journey through time, children learn where Frankfurt got its name, how an imperial coronation took place in the cathedral, what the Hauptwache looked like in Goethe's time and what happened at the first Frankfurt National Assembly in the Paulskirche on 18 May 1848. And along the way, the windy effects of eating cabbage will keep young listeners in good spirits, while parents can be amused by the fact that, fittingly, the emperor happens to resemble a longtime German chancellor.
Naturally, an audio adventure with a running time of just under 70 minutes can only scratch the surface and not offer a truly comprehensive history of the city. However, the amount of information incorporated into the story, as well as the manner in which it is conveyed, is perfectly suited to children's attention spans and very engagingly realized. Little amateur historians can thus have a lot of fun with this CD and learn something at the same time, without the whole thing becoming too pedagogical. And for this there is then also for all young-Frankfurter between 5 and 8 years a clear: Recommendable!
An article by Frankfurt-Tipp
