Go-Ahead for Erika Fuchs Museum

Erika Fuchs was probably the most influential translator in postwar Germany - she edited and translated the Disney comic Micky-Maus for many years, introducing a characteristic style that made a huge impression on colloquial German. Fuchs died in 2005, and now the local council of Schwarzenbach an der Saale has given the green light for the Erika-Fuchs-Haus, a museum of her legacy.

I'm not aware of any other museums dedicated to translators, and this one looks like it'll be an amazing experience. I downloaded the design concept from behind the previous link, and am now rather excited. As well as rooms focusing at the history of comics, the Donald Duck universe, Erika Fuchs herself and a comic library, one of the largest spaces will look at translating comics. I pretty much fell in love with it when I spotted the "onomatopoeic cabinet" but there's all manner of fun in store, with a chance for visitors to try their hand at comic translation, games such as an alliteration competition and seats in the shape of words invented by Erika Fuchs.

Building work starts in the summer, according to the dpa report.

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.