Thursday 1 April 2010

Erika Fuchs Museum - or is it a "duck"?

Last year the Wall Street Journal ran a great article by Susan Bernofsky about Germany's Erika Fuchs - the revered and beloved translator of the perennially popular Donald Duck comics, who pimped up the language to make Donald a bit of a philosopher.

And today the Bayerischer Rundfunk has a piece about progress towards an Erika Fuchs Museum in her home town of Schwarzenbach an der Saale. Apparently they now have permission to use Disney images in the museum, plus the support of the comic's publishers Ehapa. And according to the website www.erika-fuchs.de, there really is a plan to open a museum honouring Fuchs' role in popularising Donald and co.

But there's one tiny drawback: today's date. The German word Zeitungsente - literally "newspaper duck" - means canard or newspaper hoax. And as much as I'd like to believe there are people out there who want to open a museum dedicated to a translator's life and work, it all seems too much of a coincidence.

3 comments:

J.M. said...

I love how the German language employs critters to describe extreme actions. This reminds me of when I first read "mit einem Affenzahn" in a Wuerzburg newspaper. I interpreted the literal meaning and my aunt couldn't stop laughing. I'll definitely have to read the NYT article though on this..seems interesting.

lindi said...

I saw this today and I can assure you that yes, there are people who are planning to open a museum for Erika Fuchs. This information is brought to you by someone who used the same sledding hill as Donald's little nephews, the Hertelsleite.

Anonymous said...

Construction is well under way and the opening in due sometime in spring or early summer 2014. Confirmed by Museum director.