''Anna, Schmidt und Oskar'' is a

German television Television in Germany began in Berlin on 22 March 1935, broadcasting for 90 minutes three times a week. It was home to the first regular television service in the world, named ''Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow''. In 2000, the German television marke ...

program from the mid-1990s that serves a similar niche as ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'' does in the United States. It is aimed at foreign children who live in Germany and are learning German as a second language.

Plot

The show concerns the exploits of Anna, a young

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...

, who is forced to take care of Mr. Schmidt, a

senile Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform everyday activities. This typically involves problems with memory, ...

old man with

magic Magic or magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces ** ''Magick'' (with ''-ck'') can specifically refer to ceremonial magic * Magic (illusion), also known as sta ...

al powers, when her

mother A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

, Mr. Schmidt's former

caretaker Caretaker may refer to: Occupations * Janitor (chiefly in the United States), a person who cleans and maintains buildings such as hospitals and schools * Property caretaker, a person who cares for a property * Caregiver or carer (UK), a person wh ...

, falls ill. Oskar is a stray dog who Mr. Schmidt adopts. At first, the pair fail to connect, but eventually Oskar is able to know exactly what his master is talking about, as viewed by speech bubbles which appear above the dog's head. As the show progresses, Anna becomes more absorbed in Mr. Schmidt's crazy world. The running joke is that Anna must keep returning to Mr. Schmidt's house to retrieve a plate, which she never actually does.

Goals

The show has two primary aims: *To teach children how to speak German *To teach German children socially accepted customs The latter is best displayed through the door spider (Türspinne). Every time someone opens the door to Mr. Schmidt's house, the door spider instructs them to close the door (Tür zu!). This is supposed to teach German children that it is customary in Germany to close a door after entering a room, as Germans believe open doors produce drafts which might compromise one's health..

References

German children's television series German-language education television programming 1990s German television series {{Germany-childrens-tv-prog-stub