Illustrator Richard Eckert and author Christiane Wagner have created a small memorial to the missing “Schlosscafé” by artist Jane Höchstetter and jazz musician Stefan Berchtold in the Gautinger Schlosspark with the beautifully designed picture book “The white Christmas mouse from the Schloss-Café”.
Gauting
- Illustrator Richard Eckert and author Christiane Wagner have created a small memorial to the “Schlosscafé” by artist Jane Höchstetter and jazz musician Stefan Berchtold in the Gautinger Schlosspark with the beautifully designed picture book “The white Christmas mouse from the Schloss-Café”.
Richard, called "Ricci", Eckert, provided the imaginative illustrations, but also the inspiration for the picture book.
“The Fußberg Castle in Gauting is located in the middle of a park.
There are tall trees with sweeping treetops and grassy areas full of meadow flowers and the Würm flows right through them, ”enthuses author Christiane Wagner.
"And in winter the Würm gurgles through a snow-white upholstered bed with glass edges of ice."
In connection with successful drawings by Eckert, the author tells of the cozy café on the ground floor of the castle, "where people used to meet long ago: to talk, eat, play chess or celebrate a birthday".
Very close to the front door “there was a thick beech tree, and between its roots there lived a mouse” called Christl.
But in front of other animals in the park, the mouse had to watch out "as hell".
“You're not white at all, not even really gray,” a red squirrel, a gray-white wild goose and a great spotted woodpecker, all perfectly drawn, made fun of the mouse.
And mockingly called her: "The white Christl from the Schloss-Café."
Because her husband had fallen into a worm, the mouse mother became a "merry widow".
Whenever there was music somewhere, for example by the unforgettable “tuba man”, a paper mache figure by Ricci Eckert, “she loved to dance for her life”.
In the summer there were concerts and festivals in the park.
But it was most beautiful in winter.
Because at Christmas they played American Christmas carols.
She especially enjoyed listening to “I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas”.
Because the mouse couldn't speak English, it always understood Christmaus instead of Christmas, writes Christiane Wagner.
But the castle café had to close.
And the Christmaus found neither cheese cubes nor leftover bacon for their offspring.
One day the thinner and thinner Christmas mouse fell over.
Nevertheless, the story has a happy ending: Even today, the white Christmas mouse hovers through the tree tops of the castle park and dances to the gramophone song.
The hardcover book costs 24 euros (softcover 17 euros) and is available from the “Moppelfritz” toy store or the “Kirchheim” bookstore.
Christine Cless-Wesle