The Sandman, in German das Sandmännchen, is the most lasting feature on German television and one that whole generations grew up with sending them to bed. He premiered on East German television 1959-11-22 and was modelled on Hans Christian Andersen's Ole Lukøje character. Nine days later he made his first appearance on West Berlin's local channel. He was soon adopted by TV channels all over the country and now, forty years after his first appearance, he still commands a nightly audience of more than a million viewers.
The Sandman is the creation of puppetmaster and director Gerhard Behrendt. Behrendt aimed to combine signs both of wisdom and age as well as childlikeness and came up with an animated puppet character who had a long white goatee, a pointy nightcap and a youthful, smiling face with button eyes. The Sandman airs for about five minutes between 18:30 and 19:00, before the evening news on many channels. His appearance is the sign for little children to go to bed and leave the evening to the grown-ups.
One of the things most characteristic of the Sandmännchen is the variety of vehicles he arrives in. He may be on foot, riding a camel or landing in a spaceship, you never know. He then presents a bedtime story, throws sand into the childrens' eyes to make them sleepy and leaves. Actually the Danish original used sweet milk rather than sand. The kids then rub their eyes and pretend to yawn and it makes it a heck of a lot easier to get them to bed in broad daylight, which it usually is at 19:00 in summer in those latitudes.
There used to be two types of Sandman: the western one who acquired a fringe beard in 1962 and the eastern one who kept the classic pointy beard. During German reunification in the early 1990s, not even the Sandman remained unaffected; he also had to be "unified." In the end, it was the East German Sandman who won out and he is now the only Sandman on German television. The Sandman is actually one of the few East German culture icons that survived reunification, even if he can no longer drive a Trabant.
I remember watching him religiously. I'd refuse to go to bed if I hadn't seen the Sandman first, not that I wasn't always looking for an excuse to delay bedtime anyway. I didn't care whether it was on West German or East German television, as long as there was a Sandman. It was sort of a nightly ritual for us kids.
Here's the song that went with the show; music by Wolfgang Richter and text by Wolfgang Krumbach. In Germany it's as much a classic as Rock A Bye Baby is in the States.
Arriving:
Sandmann, lieber Sandmann, es ist noch nicht so weit!
Wir sehen erst den Abendgruß, eh jedes Kind ins Bettchen muß,
du hast gewiß noch Zeit.
Sandman, dear Sandman, it is not time yet!
First we'll watch the evening's greeting before every little child must go to bed.
Surely, you have time for that.
Leaving:
Kinder, liebe Kinder, das hat mir Spaß gemacht.
Nun schnell ins Bett und schlaft recht schön.
Dann darf auch ich zur Ruhe gehn. Ich wünsch euch gute Nacht.
Children, dear children, that was fun.
Now, quick, to bed and sleep tight.
Then I can also go and rest. I wish you a good night.
Sources:
Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg
Neue Presse
Several anonymous sources