Bernd das Brot facts for kids
Bernd das Brot (which means Bernd the bread in English) is a famous puppet character from Germany. He is a star and a favorite character on the German children's television channel KI.KA. You can see him in shows like Bernd das Brot and Bravo Bernd.
Contents
Bernd's Role on KI.KA
Bernd is a special kind of bread. He's a rectangular loaf of bread who is often grumpy and a bit sad. He speaks in a deep, gloomy voice. He is small, golden brown, and has hands directly on his body. He also has rings around his eyes and a thin mouth. Bernd says he belongs to a species called "Homo Brotus Depressivus," which means "depressed bread man."
Bernd's favorite things to do are simple. He likes to stare at his wall at home and learn the patterns on it. He also enjoys reading his favorite magazine, The Desert and You. Another hobby is collecting videos of the most boring railway tracks. Bernd mostly cares about himself. His favorite word is Mist!, which means "Darn!" or "Phooey!". He also often says, "I would like to be left alone," "I would like to leave this show," and "My life is hell."
The story goes that Bernd first appeared in an advertisement for a bakery. When that didn't work out, he had to get a job at the KI.KA TV channel. This is why he always looks so grumpy! Bernd himself doesn't really want to be on TV. He thinks it's a "dirty business."
Bernd works with two other main characters. One is Chili das Schaf (Chili the Sheep). She is a yellow sheep with bright red hair. Chili is very chatty and loves exciting adventures. She is the show's host and a "stuntsheep" who enjoys getting into close calls.
The other main character is Briegel der Busch (Briegel the Bush). He is a green bush with glasses, flowers, and leaves instead of hair. Briegel is the show's technical expert. He is always pleasant and loves to invent complicated machines. These machines almost always explode! Chili and Briegel love adventures and excitement, which is very different from Bernd. Bernd doesn't hide that he doesn't think much of them. He calls them "Bush" and "Sheep" instead of their names. But Chili and Briegel treat him like their best friend and even call him "Bernti."
The first show with Bernd, Chili, and Briegel was called Tolle Sachen, die einzige Werbesendung auf KI.KA in 2001. This means Great things, the only advertising show on KI.KA. KI.KA is a public channel, so it doesn't have commercials, like PBS Kids in the US. In this show, Chili and Briegel would advertise something. Then, a "randomly" chosen person would test it, and it was always Bernd! They also made shows that were like parodies of other famous stories. These included Robin Hood, Star Trek, Westerns, and fairy tales.
How Bernd Was Made
Bernd was created in the year 2000 by Thomas Krappweis. He worked for a company called Bumm Film in Munich, Germany. The KI.KA channel had asked different companies to create a new sheep character. One night, Krappweis was eating pizza and drawing on a napkin while looking at a bread basket. He got a square loaf of bread and gave it the face of his colleague, Norman Cöster. Norman Cöster also had many personality traits similar to Bernd.
Thomas Krappweis himself was the inspiration for Chili the Sheep. Just like Krappweis when he was younger, Chili gets on people's nerves with silly stunts. Briegel the Bush was based on another producer of the show, Michael Briegel. People say he also liked to cause a bit of trouble. There's a story that he once set an office computer on fire!
The actual designs for Bernd and Briegel were made by a cartoonist named Georg Graf von Westphalen. The puppeteer Jörg Teichgraeber is the one who plays Bernd and gives him his voice.
Bernd's Kidnapping
In 2007, the KI.KA channel gave a statue of Bernd to the German city of Erfurt. This was to celebrate the channel's tenth birthday. KI.KA is based in Erfurt. The statue is 2 meters (about 6.5 feet) tall and weighs 125 kilograms (about 275 pounds). It is made of plastic. It stands in the city's main square, the Fischmarkt, next to the town hall. It became a popular spot for tourists.
On January 21, 2009, the statue disappeared! Later, a video appeared on YouTube. A group called "Team 129 A" said they had taken the statue. In the video, Bernd seemed to agree with the activists. This made some news outlets joke that he had developed "Stockholm syndrome," which is when a hostage starts to feel sympathy for their captors.
The activists were staying in an abandoned factory. They wanted to stop the city of Erfurt from turning the area into apartments and offices. They had opened a cafe and were holding talks there. The city tried to negotiate, but the activists refused other housing options. The squatters said they didn't kidnap Bernd. They thought a group of their supporters might have done it.
The TV channel that owns Bernd, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, quickly made YouTube remove the video. They said it violated their copyright. Steffen Kottkamp, the head of KI.KA, was very upset about Bernd's kidnapping. Thomas Krappweis, Bernd's creator, asked for the statue to be returned. He said, "Kidnapping, even of bread loaves, is the wrong way to achieve political goals." Fans also started an online petition asking for the statue to come back to Erfurt.
The Bernd statue was finally found by chance on February 1, 2009. It was in the basement of an old army building in Nohra, between Erfurt and Weimar. Five children were looking for old items in the area before it was torn down. They found the Bernd statue and told KI.KA and the police. No one knows how the statue ended up there. After experts confirmed it was the real statue, six police officers carried it out. It was then brought back to its original spot in front of Erfurt's town hall.
Bernd's Works
Music
- 2003: Tanzt das Brot (Single)
- 2003: Rockt das Brot (Album)
- Songs on the album include: Chili-TV-Rap / Ich habe ein kleines Cha Cha Cha / Ich sage NEIN / Zu spät / Bluesbrot Bernd / Briegel, komm / Ich will wieder heim / Tanzt das Brot / Saulaut (sung by Chili the Sheep) / Bielefeld / Easy Briegel / Schreit das Schaf (sung by Chili the Sheep) / Buschig, brotig, chilischarf / Geht einfach alle weg / Dubididum
- 2004: Bernds Balkon (Single)
Bernd's music has also appeared on other music collections:
- 2001: Was geht ab? (on the album KiKA-Hits)
- 2007: Tanzt das Brot (Party-Mix 2007) (on the album KiKA Hits – Das Beste aus den ersten 10 Jahren)
- 2007: P… wie Party (on the album KiKA Geburtstagsparty)
- 2008: Fußball Fußball Hey Hey Hey (on the album KiKA Fußball-Hits)
Videogames
- Kikania (2001, Ubisoft)
- Bernd das Brot und die Unmöglichen (2013, Deep Silver)
Images for kids
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Statue of Bernd das Brot back in front of the town hall in Erfurt, Germany after its kidnapping
- Bernd das Brot at Curlie (in German)
