Graphic designer was 92 years old: the “mother of the mouse” Schmitt-Menzel is dead
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Graphic designer was 92 years old
The “mother of the mouse” Schmitt-Menzel is dead
9/10/2022, 9:14 PM
Your orange cartoon mouse from “The Show with the Mouse” has molded a whole generation of kids since 1971. As the WDR now reports, the creator, the graphic artist Isolde Schmitt-Menzel, passed away last Sunday.
She came up with a character that has shaped generations of children – now the “mother of the mouse” is dead: the graphic artist Isolde Schmitt-Menzel died at the age of 92. The WDR announced this, citing the family. According to WDR, the Eisenach-born artist illustrated some 35 books and made bronze and ceramic sculptures. She lived for a long time as a freelance artist in Texas and the south of France.
She is best known for creating the orange cartoon mouse, first seen in 1971 in “The Show with the Mouse”. The WDR acknowledged that they shaped their original and imaginative character with the first 100 or so mouse spots they created. Without her and her great creativity, the mouse would not have seen the light of day, said WDR program director Jörg Schönenborn. “We are very grateful to Mrs. Schmitt-Menzel for that.”
According to WDR, Isolde Schmitt-Menzel died last Sunday, September 4, surrounded by her family in Frankfurt am Main.
(Photo: photo alliance / dpa)
The Twitter account “Die Maus”, operated by WDR, said: “It gave the mouse its essential character and color and will live on in it. We are very sad.” More than 51 years after its first broadcast, the show has long since become an institution: the mouse was honored by the Federal President, sung about it by Stefan Raab and launched into space by Alexander Gerst. Schmitt-Menzel developed the character from her book illustration “The Mouse in the Shop”.
In a WDR interview on the occasion of the mouse’s 40th birthday, she recalled the character’s birth time: “That was just not my profession, a gray mouse. I was for fantastic and crazy things. So I thought: the mice will get along in any case all a color other than gray. And the head mouse was orange, with brown ears, arms and legs.’ Yellow represents intelligence, red represents energy.”The two things together in my mouse was my pursuit because I am like that,” she said.According to WDR, Isolde Schmitt-Menzel died last Sunday, September 4, surrounded by her family in Frankfurt am Main .
