Count Franz Graf von Pocci (7 March 1807 – 7 May 1876) was a significant official in the court of King Ludwig the First of Bavaria, best known as the founding director of the Munich Marionette Theatre where he was a shadow puppeteer and wrote countless puppet plays and children's stories. Pocci, in collaboration with Josef Schmid, founded the Munich Marionette Theatre in Munich, Bavaria, Germany in 1855. He hired the premises, drew stage curtains and designs, and wrote pieces for the hero of Schmid's shows, Kasperl Larifari, a descendant of Hans Wurst and all the classical comic figures in traditional European puppetry. This collaboration was highly influential and is credited with inspiring the formation of other theaters, most notably the

Salzburg Marionettes Salzburg Marionette Theatre was established in 1913 and is one of the oldest continuing marionette theatres in the world. It is based in the city of Salzburg, Austria. Original productions featured live actors and musicians. Today soundtracks are r ...

under

Anton Aicher Anton Aicher (1859 – 5 February 1930) was the founding Artistic Director of the Salzburg Marionette Theatre. He founded the company in 1913 and was its leader until his death. Background Aicher was born in a small village in southern Styria in ...

in 1913 in Salzburg, Bavaria, and the Toelz Marionette Theater.

Work

A German dramatist, poet, painter, and composer, Pocci is credited by the Munich Marionette Theatre with inventing the Punch and Judy Show, and contributing a remarkable 45 original works to the theatre's library. Some were based on traditional classical plots, and some were his own inventions. Among his most prominent fairy‐tale plays are ''Blaubart'' ('' Bluebeard'', 1845), ''Schattenspiel'' (''Shadow Play'', 1847), ''Hänsel und Gretel'' ('' Hansel and Gretel'', 1861), ''Zaubergeige'' (''The Magic Violin'', 1868), ''Eulenschloss'' (''The Castle of Owls'', 1869), ''Kasperl wird reich'' (''Punch Becomes Rich'', 1872). Pocci combined comic features of the Punch and Judy shows with fantastic elements of the traditional fairy tales to create social farces aimed at enlightening and amusing children. In addition to his literary work, his role as director saw him provide political and financial support to the organisation, acting as patron, landlord, and backer, and supporting the dreams of Schmid, his collaborator. He was also responsible for drawing illustrations for collections of fairy tales by

Charles Perrault Charles Perrault ( , also , ; 12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was an iconic French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales ...

, the Brothers Grimm, and

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

. Figures from his productions of ''The Fat Gentleman'' and ''The Serenade'' are still in existence today, and his best known stories ''The Stranger Child: A Legend'' and ''The Nutcracker Dwarf'' are still in wide circulation. Pocci's art and poetry were also published in his own books, including ''Rhymes and Pictures for Children'' and ''Viola Tricolor: In Picture and Rhyme''. His images from the latter are printed in chromolithography. He is responsible for both the art and the verse in the book, and both are noteworthy. FranzPocciVoilaTricolor1

Pocci, Franz, ''Viola Tricolor'', p. 6

Notes

Bibliography

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pocci, Franz German puppeteers 19th-century German painters German male painters German designers Performing arts presenters Theatre people from Munich Counts of Germany 1807 births 1876 deaths German male writers 19th-century German male artists Writers from Munich