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Pumuckl

Hooray, hooray! Ellis Kaut's 105th birthday

Blistering barnacles! The ‘mother’ of Pumuckl, author Ellis Kaut, would have celebrated her 105th birthday on 17 November. Her famous goblin is more popular today than ever: a new film is just being released and a new television series featuring his adventures is about to enter its second season.

The red-haired kobold made his first appearance more than 60 years ago. However, he was invisible at the time, as he only existed in books and as a radio play. On 21 February 1962, Bayerischer Rundfunk broadcast the first episode of the radio play series ‘Meister Eder und sein Pumuckl’ (Master Eder and his Pumuckl). It was called ‘Spuk in der Werkstatt’ (Haunting in the Workshop). This marked the beginning of a long success story that continues to this day. Recordings, television series and feature films followed. BR broadcast 90 episodes of the radio play series before the last episode was aired on 30 December 1973: ‘Pumuckl geht aufs Meer’ (Pumuckl goes to sea), in which he returns to his relatives, the Klabauters and water sprites – and Meister Eder learns that you have to let children go at some point.

Meister Eder forever: Gustl Bayrhammer

Master Eder, who generations of Pumuckl fans grew up with, was played by Gustl Bayrhammer in the old BR series. In the new series, Florian Brückner plays his nephew, who has inherited the carpenter's workshop along with the imp. For everyone over forty, however, Bayrhammer, the great Bavarian actor, remains the one and only Meister Eder. Although Bayrhammer never really liked being typecast or pigeonholed: ‘I don't like labels,’ said the charismatic grump shortly before his death in 1993. But the fact that generations of children still know and love him as ‘Meister Eder’ today would certainly have pleased him. After all, one of the reasons he played the television role in 54 episodes was because his own grandchildren were Pumuckl fans.

Bayrhammer, born on 12 February 1922 in Munich, wanted nothing more than to become an actor at a Munich theatre from an early age. But it took a very long time for his dream to come true: he spent twenty years performing at smaller theatres in the ‘provinces’ until, in 1966, the great Therese Giehse finally ‘discovered’ him and brought him to Munich. From then on, he performed on the very biggest stages and also received an increasing number of roles in film and television. He became known nationwide as Inspector Veigl in the crime series ‘Tatort’; at his side was the equally unforgettable ‘Monaco Franze’ Helmut Fischer. On television, Bayrhammer often played mayors and rogues, and on the stage of the Residenztheater he played St. Peter, the gatekeeper of heaven, over 700 times in ‘Der Brandner Kaspar und das ewig' Leben’ (Brandner Kaspar and Eternal Life).

Pumuckl croaxes with AI

Finally, he landed the role of ‘Meister Eder,’ which stuck to him like Pumuckl to the glue pot. He first ‘inherited’ the part in 1977 in the Bavarian Radio radio play series, which had been running since 1962. Bayrhammer had already occasionally appeared in other roles, but after the death of ‘Eder’ voice actor Alfred Pongratz, he became his successor. From 1982 onwards, he also played the character on camera alongside the animated goblin, to whom Hans Clarin lent his unmistakable voice from 1962 until his death in 2005. Maxi Schaffroth currently voices the goblin, but his voice is matched to Clarin's with the help of artificial intelligence.

Ellis Kaut: Pumuckl´s mother

On 17 November 1920, little Elisabeth Kaut came into the world in Stuttgart. Her father, who was born in Munich, was an authorised officer at a bank, her mother a farmer’s daughter from the Württemberg region. The family moved to Munich when Ellis was two years old. The artistic streak of the girl was apparent even at an early age.

The four-year-old, nick-named "Lieserl", loved to sing songs with an infinite number of verses, at the top of her lungs and especially in the stairwell, to all friends, relatives and neighbours, and was almost unstoppable. One day, when the caretaker asked her if she wanted to become a singer, the girl replied: "No, I don't want to become something like that. I want to become world-famous."

A versatile artist

Therefore, it is not surprising that – without her parents’ knowledge – Ellis Kaut paid for drama classes out of her own small monthly salary as a clerical trainee at the City of Munich. She was offered an engagement in Wiesbaden, but she felt that this was too far away from her future husband. In 1939, she married the journalist and author Kurt Preis, who had also encouraged her to start writing. Finally, she studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich during the second world war. She managed to keep her family afloat by making a living from sculpting, selling ceramic figurines and making portraits of famous Munich people.

Pumuckl´s birth

It was only later that she began to write novellas, stories and radio plays and worked as an announcer for the Bavarian radio station "Bayerischer Rundfunk" (BR). She wrote her first and very successful radio play series for children about a tomcat named Musch, "Geschichten vom Kater Musch". When the voice actors of the main characters left Munich for professional reasons, the series was discontinued after more than 100 episodes.

A new series was to replace "Kater Musch" and Ellis Kaut was assigned the job. At a meeting of the editorial staff, she was looking for the pencil that she had just been holding in her hand – it had suddenly disappeared. She laughed: "What if it wasn’t I who had misplaced the pencil, but a goblin?" The editor was enthusiastic about the idea, creating the basis for a new series.

It was during a winter stroll with her husband that a name for the goblin popped up: Ellis Kaut had fun pulling down the snow-covered branches in such a way that the snow landed on her husband’s head. He put up with this, laughed and called her "a right pumuckl". A name that came to his mind on the spur of the moment.

How does an Invisible look?

In 1982 the feature film "Meister Eder and his Pumuckl" with Gustl Bayrhammer in the role of Meister Eder was released; shortly thereafter the television series followed.

Ellis Kaut’s son-in-law, Brian Bagnall, created the cartoon character in bright colours. It was animated in Budapest.

The trade mark rights to “Pumuckl” were obtained by Ursula Bagnall, the daughter of Ellis Kaut, (including word mark DE 1012772, Pumuckl, applied for on 31 March 1979 for the classes of goods 38, 9, 35, 41 and 42).

From then on, Brian Bagnall illustrated the "Pumuckl" not only on screen, but also in the children’s books. Barbara von Johnson felt that her copyright had been violated and went to court. In 2005, at the end of the lawsuit, she received a compensation, subsequently. Johnson is also the proprietor of the "Pumuckl" figurative mark DE 1028393.

In total, "Pumuckl" was sold about 10 million times on record, cassette and video. "Pumuckl" musicals, including that at the Gärtnerplatz theatre, and further TV series as well as a feature film were produced. There is even a "Pumuckl" fountain in
Luitpold park.

In September 2015, shortly before her 95th birthday, Ellis Kaut died. She will always be remembered for her works and stories, but especially for her little, cheeky goblin.

Pictures: DPMAregister, Constantin Film, BR Infa Film Gmbh - Barbara von Johnson, Bayerischer Rundfunk, DPMAregister, Oliver Raupach via Wikimedia Commons

Last updated: 4 November 2025