The Blue Rabbit’s Best Friend
Christian Bahrmann, host on the children’s television channel KiKA, is promoting a healthy diet with the catering company Optimahl
Christian Bahrmann originally wanted to become a teacher. English and geography. His career as a musician in the band “Die Durchlauferhitzers”, who played cover songs from The Rolling Stones and The Police, never really took up steam either. Luckily, among the third generation of children he is simply known as Christian. The actor, puppeteer, singer and TV host Bahrmann and his red polo shirt has become the most well-known and successful face of the children’s television channel Kinderkanal (KiKA) as the best friend of the Kikaninchen, a blue rabbit. Together with the Adlershof-based company Optimahl, his “leckerlogisch” initiative is showing children and parents how to enjoy a healthy diet.
“Do it in a funny way,” he was told by the stage director. Do the Templar from Kleist’s Nathan the Wise in a funny way? It is easy to believe that Christina Bahrmann managed to make everyone laugh when he presented his version at the entrance exam of the Ernst Busch Drama School. The school accepted him. After two-and-a-half terms on his way to becoming a teacher, Bahrmann decided “that this was not for me”. He learned a lot about linguistics and literature, but almost nothing about how to work with children properly. To the great joy of his parents – a teacher and a journalist – he became an actor. This didn’t come as a complete surprise for his parents. Bahrmann, who describes himself as a “limelight hog”, never actually stopped being a child.
He verbosely and dramatically describes his career and working with children with great joy and bright eyes. He was a frequent visitor of the puppet theatre “Firlefanz” in Berlin as a child with its old hand puppets. His parents were friends of the main puppeteer, so they used to get free tickets. He had almost finished school, where he was also part of the drama club, when he played few puppet roles on the “Firlefanz” tours. He likes to think back to his drama school times. “We could try whatever we wanted.” When he was at university, he stood on theatre stages in Lucerne, Stuttgart and Berlin. Sometimes with the puppets, sometimes without. “The style was usually quite dark,” says Bahrmann. “That soon started to get on my nerves.”
For his diploma, Bahrmann wanted to create “something happier” and put on “The Brave Little Tailor”, directed by Harald Preuß, the boss of “Firlefanz”. It also became the first play of the “Prenzlkasper”, the theatre he founded in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. It was followed by many others and Bahrmann has a hard time picking a favourite. In the end, he goes with “The Hare and the Hedgehog”, because of the poetry and the open stage.
The most recent blockbusters among his young visitors are the old Kasperle stories, which Bahrmann is also currently rediscovering. “Kasper and the Dinosaur” is a big hit. “Kids react instantly. They are inside the scenes and eager to interact. It creates magic moments,” says Bahrmann about his fascination with puppets, who is a father of three children himself. You get to know children on a different level. And when they start telling you things, they are actually telling Christian or the Kasper.
It was purely coincidental that one day a KiKA producer was among the audience. “Please send us a video someday,” she told him. They were looking for a “host with acting skills” – for a new programme. Since 2009, Bahrmann can be seen daily on KiKA, the children’s television channel of the German public channels ARD and ZDF, during the week. Together with the vivacious Kikaninchen, he now runs the most successful preschool programme for young viewers. “I was closely involved in the development of the programme across 18 months. That was nice. It makes it authentic.” He is glad about his success. He has now been on the air for eight years.
Meanwhile, his fame and face are attached to several projects with and for children. On World Children’s Day in September, he hosted the stage show on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin in front of 50,000 people. He writes regular pieces in the magazine “Kinder” dealing with crucial parenting questions such as “Pet or no pet”. Now he is working towards promoting a healthy diet together with the Adlershof-based catering company Optimahl. The basic idea of his “leckerlogisch” initative is to playfully communicate these issues in preschools and schools. They do so during regular events where Mirko Mann, the head of Optimahl, is responsible for the pots and pans while Christian Bahrmann gives important information to the kids. They are also planning to visit kindergardens, farms and farm shops as well as supermarkets for culinary exploring. Maybe he hasn’t quite shaken off wanting to become a teacher after all.
By Rico Bigelmann for Adlershof Journal