Armin Maiwald

Armin Maiwald (born 23 January 1940) is a German author, television director and producer. Maiwald is one of the founders of the award-winning German children's television program, Die Sendung mit der Maus. Often just called Die Maus ("The Mouse"), the program has been on the air since March 1971 and is one of the most successful children's television programs ever produced. Maiwald has won over 50 awards for his work.

Professional career In 1963, he began working as an assistant director at the West German television station, WDR, and in 1971, he became one of the founders of Die Sendung mit der Maus (The Program with the Mouse), which has been called "the school of the nation" and one of the most successful children's programs ever produced.

From decades of narrating the program's educational film shorts (Sachgeschichten), Maiwald's voice is widely recognized even when he merely orders a cup of coffee or a beer. He has also created the Bibliothek der Sachgeschichten (library of educational film shorts) from his productions for "The Mouse". Maiwald produces some 20 film shorts a year for the program.

A number of "The Mouse" educational shorts are used at universities, and other institutions as educational tools and Maiwald has received numerous media and journalism awards for his work. In 1988, he received the Adolf Grimme Award. In addition, there is a special education school in Radevormwald named after him. In October 2010, it was announced that an elementary school in Monheim am Rhein would also be named after him.

An outspoken critic of the decline of television programming, including at the station that broadcasts his own program, Maiwald has complained about the quality of programs available for children and the bottom-line mentality that rules decision-making in scheduling and content. was produced after Maiwald found himself in Uffing, where he was evacuated after World War II and was flooded with memories of his experiences as a child after the war. They found black-and-white photos from the past and located the sites, shooting them in color as they looked years later. For the series, they super-imposed the black-and-white images of ruins over the contemporary images, so the children could see how Germany looked after the war and compare it to their own era.

Using a mix of postwar-era footage and still photographs, he shows the devastated cities, the millions who lost their lives, the return of concentration camp survivors and the desperate circumstances of average Germans, many of whom had lost everything.

Maiwald said the Postwar Mouse was the hardest film he ever produced and that when he had finished it, he never wanted to see it again. and fled with his mother and infant sister to Silesia. They stayed there from 1942 to 1945, when the Russians came, then fled to Dresden and were there when it was bombed, shortly after Maiwald's fifth birthday. He escaped on the last train out and says he will never forget looking out the window at the conflagration that Dresden had become. By the age of five, he had seen more burning buildings and dead bodies than most Germans see in their entire lives, Maiwald says. However, he did not get a degree because at the time, there was no master's or bachelor's degree, only a doctorate. He was in the middle of his research when he realized that he didn't want to become a theoretician, but rather wanted to be doing things, so he quit for years and quit after a lung infection. Appearing on WDR's program, Streitfall, during which the discussion was on European Union laws to protect non-smokers, he stated that it was better to smoke than to be fat. His arguments were seen as shocking and unseemly for someone "in his position", held as a hero by many children. Even the fact that he was once a chain smoker was hard to believe.

Awards Maiwald has received over 50 awards, including the following:

1985 – Ernst Schneider Award 1988 – Adolf Grimme Award 2002 – Ernst Schneider Award 2005 - Georg von Holtzbrinck Prize for Science Journalism

Audio recordings Armin Maiwald liest Christoph Columbus und das Wachsen der Welt. Ungekürzte Lesung; ab 9 Jahren. Es lesen Armin Maiwald und Dieter Saldecki. Arena-Verlag, Würzburg. (2006) Geschichten aus dem Alten Ägypten mit der Maus. Script by Dieter Saldecki and Peter Brandt. Read by Dieter Saldecki and Armin Maiwald. Universal Family Entertainment, Hamburg. (2002)

Books Peter Brandt, Armin Maiwald, Dieter Saldecki, Jesus – Jeschua – Iesous. Arena, Würzburg (2007)