Sondermann is a cartoon character of the painter and cartoonist Bernd Pfarr, which appeared, until August 1994, in a column of the same name by the writer Simone Borowiak and, from 1987 to August 2004, regularly in the satirical magazine Titanic. Model for the name was Gerhard Sondermann, the first publisher of Titanic.
Sondermann is a creation of an illustrator, who, as Bernd Pfarr himself once said, wants "to drive reality out of the pictures" (German: "den Bildern die Realität austreiben").
The world of Sondermann is subject to its own, individual laws: "Negro scrubbing" (German: "Negerschrubben") is a traditional ritual in Sondermann's company, Sondermann and his chef subdue their hunger by "huddling softly together" (German: "sich weich aneinander schmiegen"), consuming a Schnitzel or taking out the trash are common yoga exercises, and Sondermann defeats God (German: "den lieben Gott") in Tennis.
Sondermann's world is populated by strange creatures:
Early Sondermann episodes mostly limited themselves on the master-servant-relationship between Sondermann and his chef. Out of this basic conflict, grew only over time the pandemonium of the above listed characters. According to writer Robert Gernhardt, the character very quickly developed a "life of its own" (German: "Eigenleben"), for which even the editorial staff of Titanic was not prepared.
Since 2004 Bernd Pfarr's character name also denotes an audience prize for comics awarded by and at the Frankfurt Book Fair in collaboration with the magazine Comixene, the Frankfurter Rundschau, and Spiegel Online. Some of the prizes include a cash sum.[1][2]
Gewinner des Wettbewerbs ... Deutscher Cartoon Preis ... Stefan Wirkus ... 1000 Euro
Kategorie A werden 1.000 Euro Fördergeld ausgelobt
