Hansjürgen Gauda has been occupied with various forms of dolls as work of art since childhood. The self-understanding of his artistic and (later on) therapeutic work has been shaped by unconventional early experiences with the appeal and sensual-concrete materiality of the dolls’ worlds as well as with their deconstruction. The fascination of moving from the wholistic product to its parts (deconstruction) and from the parts in turn to the creation of wholeness (reconstruction) is the focus of his engagement with dolls. What is art? What is therapy? In the interview, Gudrun Gauda, puppet therapist and wife of the artist, traces this early fascination.

The following article is an examination of the video work Resusci Anne (2019/2020) by Ida Kammerloch, which can be viewed exclusively via the link at the end of the contribution. In close collaboration, artist Ida Kammerloch and curator Mona Hesse have created a commentary on the film composed of film stills, graphics, background information and notes.

Reviews of Jean Nathan: "The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll. The Search for Dare Wright" and Brook Ashley: "Dare Wright and the Lonely Doll. A Biography"

The Lizard and Michael Hatzius interviewed

Dolls appear in leading and supporting roles in the work of the German children’s book author (and illustrator) Tony Schumacher (1848-1931). Schumacher was an extremely popular writer in the 19th century who published dozens of books as well as being a collector of antique furniture, nativity figures and much more. In her autobiographical writings, this largely forgotten author places a particular emphasis on her collection of more than 200 dolls which undergo interesting narrative and pictural transformations. The playful approach of the author and illustrator with both individual dolls and doll collectives is analyzed and subtly coordinated with the narrative content and its visualization providing examples of images and texts from the period between 1885 and 1930 which are classified biographically and historically.

Review of Anna Katharina Hahn: Out and Away

Puppet theater represents a widespread, though little researched motif in the ‘Bildungsroman’ with regard to its function within the diegesis. According to the reading of this paper, however, puppet theater is ascribed a determinant effect within the diegesis, and its sense-making character is examined more closely. To this end, questions are asked about the introduction of the doll and puppet theater motif in the novel, about parallels between the exemplary works, about reciprocal relationships - also to the life of the respective authors, Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Thomas Mann - as well as about the nature of the dolls/puppets and their metaphorical significance for the context of the novel.

Against the background of her own family constellation and migration biography Kristiane Balsevicius reflects on the significance of early experiences with dolls/puppets and puppeteering in childhood and adolescence for her artistic development as a puppeteer, director and head of a puppet theater. Looking back, it becomes clear that early emotions and play themes (e.g., belongingness, yearning, self-determination, love) are recurrently processed and artistically transformed in very differently designed doll/puppet figures and productions for children and adults.

Letters of a doll – written by Franz Kafka as a consolation for a girl who has lost her doll in a Berlin park and is crying? This episode passed down orally by Kafka's last companion Dora Diamant from the time they spent together in Berlin shortly before his death proves – despite or because of its unclear truth content – to be a source of literary-poetic inspiration for writers over a period of more than sixty years. This article explores this phenomenon and thus the literary response to a 'very different' Kafka in many of these texts.

This article is focused on the work and life of the doll maker Edith Samuel (1907- 1964). She created her first “portrait dolls” during the 1920s and 1930s in Essen, Germany. They became known as "everyday dolls" and "Jewish dolls". Edith Samuel's talent as a doll maker became apparent from early on, and in the 1930s she was renowned in Germany for her art. In 1939, she emigrated to Palestine, and she successfully started a second career as a doll maker in Erez Israel. However, it is her early work that is to be contemplated here: A whole 'generation' of peculiar Jewish portrait dolls – which contributed to their owners’ sense of identity – must not be forgotten. These dolls were particularly important as animated companions in times of murderous persecution.