Still in keeping with the times?

Benjamin the Elephant author: “Gendering superfluous”

Benjamin Blümchen's inventor Elfie Donnelly has a clear opinion on the gender craze.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/ORF, www.picturedesk.com/Karl Schöndorfer)

Benjamin Blümchen, the sugar-loving elephant, is no longer in keeping with the times. At least if a German children's group has its way, because it has now even changed its name. The "Krone" spoke to author Elfie Donnelly, who penned Benjamin Blümchen.

Goooooo! Benjamin Blümchen, the talking elephant, has been delighting children for generations. What is less well known is that the popular hero was penned by an Austrian, just like the little witch Bibi Blocksberg.

Daycare center renamed
The pachyderm with the red cap stands up to the capitalist regime of Neustadt's mayor, who wants to rake in money on the backs of the zoo animals. Children's groups have been named after the cartoon hero for decades. A daycare center in Bautzen (Saxony) found the name Benjamin Blümchen to be "out of date".

Benjamin Blümchen with his friend Otto and the roving reporter Karla Kolumna

(Bild: ORF / FIRST LOOK/ORF)

"The comfortable, sugar-crunching elephant is no longer compatible with the concept," says the KITA. Parents and children have agreed on Spreewichtel.

"Ridiculous to reduce him to his love of sugar"
The "Krone" spoke to Benjamin's "mom": Elfie Donnelly - the author was born in London in 1950, her mother was from Vienna and her father was a British occupying soldier. She moved to Vienna at the age of five and worked as a journalist for the APA, among others. Today she lives on Ibiza.

I just think it's a bit ridiculous to reduce the pachyderm to its preference for pieces of sugar.

Elfie Donnelly, Autorin

"I just think it's a bit ridiculous to reduce the pachyderm to its preference for sugar lumps. He is a sugar glutton, but chasing sugar is not his main occupation. After all, his most important qualities are a strong sense of justice, he is empathetic to the point of self-sacrifice and very, very tolerant. The fact that in what I consider to be politically questionable corners of Germany, of all places, pieces of sugar are more important than moral values speaks volumes," is the author's criticism.

Elfie Donnelly wrote the radio play for the Berlin children's radio station - a hit that has inspired generations of children.

(Bild: picturedesk.com/APA/Karl Schöndorfer)

More and more children's heroes are falling victim to "Cancel Culture"
Elfie Donnelly once wrote the radio play for Berlin children's radio. "The idea came to me during a country trip somewhere in the Allgäu, where the weathercock was missing on a village church tower and I fantasized that you could put an elephant up there instead ...", she says. She thinks little of cancel culture, to which more and more children's heroes are falling victim.

But the worst thing is that I sometimes have scissors in my head when I'm writing.

Elfie Donnelly, Autorin 

"Eeny meeny mey, fly off, mashed potato!" Like Benjamin Blümchen, the witch Bibi Blocksberg was also penned by Austrian author Elfie Donnelly.

(Bild: Kiddinix)

"But the worst thing is that I sometimes have scissors in my head when I'm writing. Can I still write 'fat'? No. Are 'foreigners' allowed to have an audible accent in radio plays or do people find that disrespectful, even though that's the reality? Wokeness gets me down anyway. I think gendering is completely superfluous. I've always said 'Landeshauptfrau' or 'Feuerwehrfrau' anyway, but I wouldn't mind 'Mann' either, we also have 'Humanity' and not 'Huwomanity'."