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Wer rief denn bloss die Feuerwehr?
26 pages
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
James Krüss
222 books41 followersJames Krüss was a German writer of children's and picture books, illustrator, poet, dramatist, scriptwriter, translator, and collector of children's poems and folk songs. In 1968 he received the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing, recognizing his "lasting contribution to children's literature".
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 31, 2023
James Krüss' Wer rief denn bloß die Feuerwehr? (which roughly translates as But Who Called the Fire Brigade? in English) was one of my favourite picture books as a child. And yet, I have to and not even all that grudgingly now admit that as an older adult rereading, while I still massively enjoy the author's fun, lyrical, often much onomatopoeic text and Erika Meier-Albert's expressively colourful, for me delightfully typical urban 1970s accompanying illustrations, the internal messages and morals provided and shown do at least somewhat feel a bit troublesome, if not rather or perhaps even majorly questionable.
Yes, the professor's house was NOT really on fire, and thus the little boy who called the fire brigade could, I guess, be at least somewhat faulted to a point for his behaviour, for having called about a fire that never actually was. However, and this is a very huge however, both James Krüss's verses and especially Erika Meier-Albert's accompanying illustrations clearly and without doubt demonstrate that Professor Kunkelts' career as a chemist and his chemical experiments notwithstanding, there are indeed huge amounts of thick and black smoke emerging from his domicile, from his windows (and how massively and delightfully punny for James Krüss to have given his professor the last name of Kunkelts, as in German, the verb "kunkeln" literally means to play around with fire). And thus, at least in my humble opinion, the little boy actually had EVERY reason to call the fire brigade and report a possible conflagration, and most and perhaps even ALL of the blame should really rest with Professor Kunkelts for engaging in these kinds of chemical experiments at home (and obviously, without first notifying the authorities as to the potentially volatile nature of his experiments at that). And that both the firemen and the professor originally seem to totally and only hold the little boy culpable and responsible (and really only stop with playing an annoyingly frustrating blame game once he has promised to make good the water damage to the house by having his tradesman father agree to paint and wallpaper the affected rooms), that does kind of bother me more than a bit as an adult because the boy really and truly has done nothing at all wrong reporting a potential fire, as the amount of smoke depicted really does seem to indicate that there at least could have been a dangerous situation requiring prompt attention by the fire department.
But that all being said, I do still very much appreciate the happy and positive ending of Wer rief denn bloß die Feuerwehr?. I personally just would have liked to have seen a bit of in my opinion more than well deserved and necessary textual, narrative criticism and condemnation levelled at Professor Kunkelts, at the in my opinion actual instigator of the sequence of events (as he was in my opinion most definitely engaging in chemical experiments that were both likely unsafe and open to and for potential and seriously problematic misunderstandings at best). Recommended mostly as a fun and engaging read aloud (the poetry of Wer rief denn bloß die Feuerwehr? is delightful and entertaining, but there might be potential semantic and vocabulary issues for recently independent readers, as there are some rather complicated compound nouns and the like used throughout).
And most definitely, the rather problematic fact of the matter that the little boy who called the fire brigade in the first place faces rather unjust levels of blame and criticism at first, this should at least be open to and for discussion and debate (especially since this scenario might perhaps make sensitive children think twice before contacting the authorities even when there is a distinct need to do so, even if there is a real and bona fide dangerous fire issue). And last but definitely not least, please do note that Wer rief denn bloß die Feuerwehr? is presented in German, and alhough the text is not academic or overly complicated, basic fluency in the German language is still most definitely and strongly suggested (and I also do not know whether an English language edition of Wer rief denn bloss die Feuerwehr even exists or has ever existed).
Yes, the professor's house was NOT really on fire, and thus the little boy who called the fire brigade could, I guess, be at least somewhat faulted to a point for his behaviour, for having called about a fire that never actually was. However, and this is a very huge however, both James Krüss's verses and especially Erika Meier-Albert's accompanying illustrations clearly and without doubt demonstrate that Professor Kunkelts' career as a chemist and his chemical experiments notwithstanding, there are indeed huge amounts of thick and black smoke emerging from his domicile, from his windows (and how massively and delightfully punny for James Krüss to have given his professor the last name of Kunkelts, as in German, the verb "kunkeln" literally means to play around with fire). And thus, at least in my humble opinion, the little boy actually had EVERY reason to call the fire brigade and report a possible conflagration, and most and perhaps even ALL of the blame should really rest with Professor Kunkelts for engaging in these kinds of chemical experiments at home (and obviously, without first notifying the authorities as to the potentially volatile nature of his experiments at that). And that both the firemen and the professor originally seem to totally and only hold the little boy culpable and responsible (and really only stop with playing an annoyingly frustrating blame game once he has promised to make good the water damage to the house by having his tradesman father agree to paint and wallpaper the affected rooms), that does kind of bother me more than a bit as an adult because the boy really and truly has done nothing at all wrong reporting a potential fire, as the amount of smoke depicted really does seem to indicate that there at least could have been a dangerous situation requiring prompt attention by the fire department.
But that all being said, I do still very much appreciate the happy and positive ending of Wer rief denn bloß die Feuerwehr?. I personally just would have liked to have seen a bit of in my opinion more than well deserved and necessary textual, narrative criticism and condemnation levelled at Professor Kunkelts, at the in my opinion actual instigator of the sequence of events (as he was in my opinion most definitely engaging in chemical experiments that were both likely unsafe and open to and for potential and seriously problematic misunderstandings at best). Recommended mostly as a fun and engaging read aloud (the poetry of Wer rief denn bloß die Feuerwehr? is delightful and entertaining, but there might be potential semantic and vocabulary issues for recently independent readers, as there are some rather complicated compound nouns and the like used throughout).
And most definitely, the rather problematic fact of the matter that the little boy who called the fire brigade in the first place faces rather unjust levels of blame and criticism at first, this should at least be open to and for discussion and debate (especially since this scenario might perhaps make sensitive children think twice before contacting the authorities even when there is a distinct need to do so, even if there is a real and bona fide dangerous fire issue). And last but definitely not least, please do note that Wer rief denn bloß die Feuerwehr? is presented in German, and alhough the text is not academic or overly complicated, basic fluency in the German language is still most definitely and strongly suggested (and I also do not know whether an English language edition of Wer rief denn bloss die Feuerwehr even exists or has ever existed).
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