To answer your question first – yes, Malleus is going to be hosted by Radio Drama Revival. There are no plans to integrate it into the audio podcast – that was just to introduce the written column. Malleus will cover a different German or English release every week. It actually hasn’t even started yet – next Saturday will see the first substantial post go up.

Regarding children’s hoerspiele, thanks for clarifying your point. Now I see where you’re coming from: you’re talking about the impact of the Klassiker from Europa’s heyday. (I didn’t grow up on them as you did, but I have listened to a fair number. My personal favorites are Europa’s first three Damonenkiller releases and the uncensored version of Konga, Der Menschenfrosch from the Macabros series. Can’t beat that title! The Tonstudio Braun Sinclairs, I confess, just aren’t my cup of tea.) Of course you’re right about that era inspiring the current audience and the producers. Oliver Doering has been quite explicit about drawing that connection too.

The interview was really just to introduce the column, not to be a serious discussion of hoerspiel history. In other words, it’s an advertisement rather than the content itself. Naturally I will be bringing up the Europa and Tonstudio Braun cassette era in the article next week, and touch on how they laid the foundation for the current market. Fred’s got a first draft of the essay and he’ll confirm that that material is discussed. Right, Fred?

Still, my citation of 70′s-80′s material is going to be very brief, since the goal is just to give non-German speakers a little context before launching into reviews of contemporary material. You still have an open invitation to write an essay that goes into the cassette era at greater length. As someone who grew up with it, you’d have a personal angle that would be great to hear.

I’ll send you this response as a personal email too so we can continue this conversation.

Best wishes,

Chris

P.S. Nice to hear from a fellow Kassettenkind. I grew up collecting the ZBS serials on cassette here in the USA.

You are absolutely right about focusing on audio drama! What I mean is that those kids who have grown up with their audio adventures starting in the ’70s are now the ones who carry the Hoerspiel boom as listeners as well as producers.

But to clarify for everybody: You write your column on Radio Drama Revival?

Email me!

All the best,

Jens

Thanks very much for your comments. It’s good to hear from you, particularly since you have a far richer perspective on German children’s audio drama than I ever will. If I slighted your childhood love and present field, you have my apology. As someone who grew up with the American Newbery Award Records audio dramas for children, and spent considerable time tracking them down again as an adult, I do appreciate your passion.

My intention in the interview was not to belittle children’s audio but to be honest about my perspective and my tastes. I’m an adult outsider who came upon the German scene around 1999. Understandably, I gravitated toward genres produced for adults. In starting this column, I also imagined that the majority of people who would read it would be adults with an interest in mature material. I admit this may have been shortsighted of me.

Malleus is ultimately intended to be a review column rather than a historical primer. I’m starting it off with a short essay on the hoerspiel boom in the interest of giving non-Germans some sense of context. While I recognize the long legacy of children’s audio drama in Germany, it is my belief that adult titles, in particular the Grusel-Krimis and their descendants, have driven the modern day boom ? in part by expanding the audience for hoerspiel beyond children. I respect that you may feel differently, and to be fair the Grusel-Krimis of the 80′s that inspired the current wave can even be considered children’s drama of a kind (I will be briefly discussing the 80?s Europa and Tonstudio Braun horror serials and the Gespenster Krimis that inspired them). I’m also aware that many German adults still collect and enjoy children’s hoerspiele.

However, my conviction that the start of John Sinclair: Edition 2000 was a watershed moment for contemporary hoerspiel isn’t unique to me. The wave of titles it inspired, some of which are acclaimed the most sophisticated hoerspiele ever made (Poe, Burns), is also a matter of record. We may have to agree to disagree on this particular point.

Malleus will focus on adult genres, primarily science fiction, fantasy, and horror. These are my passions, and I assure you I know this material extremely well, German and English. As a matter of personal interest and experience, I am not going to cover German children’s drama. Since I do not have the background to speak to the German children’s audio drama tradition, my discussion of the Hoerspiel boom will not deal with it at length either.

You’re quite right that this leaves an unfortunate void in my account of the Hoerspiel-Boom. I would be more than happy to have you do a guest column to give the children’s audio drama tradition in Germany it’s due. Please give it serious consideration. With your knowledge as a fan and experience as a contemporary producer of children’s audio drama you could open up an important body of work to an English-speaking audience. If this is of interest to you, let me know.

Regardless, you have my promise that I will try to be more upfront in the future about what I’m leaving out, and more careful about how I speak of it.

With respect,

Chris

Jens

http://www.Giddio.com – Audio adventures for kids!