Awards
Unusual prize: Alpaca droppings for “Sendung mit der Maus”
Christoph Biemann (l) and Armin Maiwald with the mouse from “Sendung mit der Maus” at the Heinz Oberhummer Award ceremony in Vienna. photo
© Matthias Röder/dpa
Even after thousands of episodes, the “Show with the Mouse” still attracts millions of viewers to their screens. She has already received many awards, but so far she has hardly received one like this.
Even after around 2,500 episodes, no one is thinking about the end of the show, which still has a large audience of millions, the editorial team said. “The questions we ask are changing. It’s less about how something is made, but rather about what can we do with it and what was it like a few decades ago,” said “Maus” editor Heike Sistig. For 83-year-old Maiwald, the mouse has a big advantage as a long-running TV show: “It’s ageless because it doesn’t speak.”
The award, which has been presented since 2016, commemorates the Austrian physicist Heinz Oberhummer. Among other things, he tried to present natural science in an entertaining way with the science cabaret Science Busters, which he co-founded. Oberhummer was a fan of alpacas, which come from South America. After the award presentation in a small circle, a big gala ceremony in Vienna was planned for Tuesday evening.