While heading to a Caricature Museum in Krems, I came across this depiction of the Beagle Boys. Its title mentioned Erika Fuchs, who became famous for translating comic stories. Fun fact: This piece stood opposite a jail. [German]
The Beagle Boys and the Jail
Yes, the depiction stood opposite the Stein prison. I guess, the prisoners didn’t like the text that much. Why? The German poem
Wir plagen uns so wacker,
wir armen Panzerknacker,
doch unsre ganze Kunst,
die war umsunst.
does mean in English
We, poor Beagle Boys, tried so hard, but all our efforts were for nothing.
The legacy of Erika Fuchs
Does my translation work? I don’t know. Translations were the profession of Erika Fuchs. Guys like Donald Duck or the Beagle Boys got their German voices from her work. She did her job pretty well. Several of her translations became part of German phrases.
An example? “Dem Ingenör ist nichts zu schwör” (For an engineer is nothing too hard to solve). Well, this sentence does not meet German spelling rules to a full extent. But the rhyme works well as a motto. Many people in Austria and Germany use it in difficult but solvable situations.
By the way, there is a museum about her work in Germany. You find the Erika Fuchs Haus in the Franconian city of Schwarzenbach an der Saale. This Museum for Comics and the Art of Language (Museum für Comic und Sprachkunst) claims to be Germany’s first Comic Museum.