Legendary Dr. Erika Fuchs, born on 7 December 1906 in Rostock and first editor-in-chief of German’s weekly magazine Micky Maus, would have turned 100 years old today. She became famous in Germany for her quality translations of Carl Barks stories and set a very high standard for the language used in the German Disney comics, a standard that is still followed today.

Erika Fuchs’ translations often included many hidden quotes and literary allusions. Many of her creations entered the German language, such as the phrase “Dem Ingeniör ist nichts zu schwör” (”nothing is too hard for an engineer”). She was applauded for infusing her translations with quotes from great German authors including Wilhelm Busch and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Today nearly one million young Duckburg-fans in Germany read Micky Maus every week, and a recent study has shown that approximately one-fifth of parents also enjoy reading along. Micky Maus has had a huge cultural and educational influence on German society in the last 55 years. Since the first issue of weekly Micky Maus magazine came out on 29 August 1951, generations have learnt new words and expanded their vocabulary from reading the adventures of Mickey Mouse and his friends. Nobody had thought that the magazine would become what it is today; over 90% of Germans have heard of Micky Maus magazine, and half of the German population today have learnt to read with it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 7th, 2006 at 1:16 am and is filed under Disney comics, Europe, Publishers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.