Heimat lesen · Bayerischer Rundfunk

Rolf Stemmle: Gurrletta Steinhöfl (9)

·26 min·2 clips

A Regensburg pigeon named Gurletta strategically reduces her weight each November, waiting all year for one specific Christmas market treat.

1. Heimat lesen on BR Heimat presents two Christmas stories by Regensburg author Rolf Stemmle, read by Christian Jungwirth, featuring the pigeon Gurletta Steinhöfl. 2. Christian Jungwirth is the reader for this episode; host Stefan Semhoff introduces Stemmle as a contemporary Regensburg author known for detail-rich depictions of human and animal life. 3. Both stories use Gurletta's pigeon perspective to observe and gently satirize aspects of human Christmas culture in Regensburg's old town. 4. In the first story, 'Das lange Warten auf eine Schupfnudel,' Gurletta spends November dieting so she can indulge at Christmas markets, and positions herself at a stall at the Heidplatz to wait for a Schupfnudel to fall. 5. A woman with two young boys orders Schupfnudeln and Gurletta calculates a fight will erupt and food will be dropped, but the father's arrival and attentiveness frustrates her plan. 6. Alice Funkenwurf arrives and immediately begins arguing that Christmas is a consumer festival, that religion has made people stupid, and that scientific evidence (including the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction and the death of Herod) disproves the Nativity story. 7. Herr Eicher, an expert on hagiographies and Bible stories, defends Christmas faith calmly but his eyes cloud with pain at Alice's repeated attacks. 8. Fred Schlamminger mediates with a practical argument: 'I don't know if God exists, but I've raised many chicks and they all loved Christmas — what can the Nativity story do for what others did in its name?' 9. Gurletta contributes that stories fill bookshops and bring people together, and that great stories aren't forgotten. 10. At the argument's climax, a Schupfnudel falls to the ground, and Alice — who had spent the conversation condemning consumerism — immediately seizes it and flies away. 11. In 'Das Mandelherz,' Gurletta steals four Christmas cookies from an unguarded bakery: a cinnamon star for her brother Jakob, an almond heart for his wife Agnes, a vanilla crescent for her nephew Fritz, and a Christmas tree with icing for the unexpected guest Berti Jogel. 12. Jakob reveals that Berti Jogel, a pigeon widower whose wife Jolante was apparently poisoned by pigeon enemies in the Stadtpark, will be joining them for Christmas because his children's nests are all overcrowded. 13. At the Christmas gathering on the northern cathedral tower, Berti's arrival is dignified but his eyes carry grief that Gurletta finds herself unable to adequately address with words. 14. Fritz arrives late with half a waffle shell he dragged through the pigeon protection netting, lightening the mood with his laughter at his own struggle. 15. The conversation shifts to urbanization: Gurletta laments that restored buildings eliminate nesting holes, Berti recalls his old nest near the train station was demolished, and Fritz argues that new buildings have their own hidden niches. 16. Gurletta privately fears the renovation of her own Patrizierturm, which has stood undisturbed for centuries, but says nothing in order not to reveal to Berti where she lives. 17. The episode ends with Agnes clearing the Christmas food from a red napkin and storing the leftovers. 18. The tone is warm, gently comic, and autumnal — Stemmle uses pigeon culture to examine solitude, tradition, grief, and the particular comfort of shared ritual at Christmas. 19. Best suited for German-speaking listeners who enjoy quiet literary radio fiction with a wry, humanistic sensibility. 20. Not suited for non-German speakers or listeners seeking plot-driven content rather than observational character sketches.

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