Sondermann is a cartoon character of the painter and cartoonist Bernd Pfarr, which appeared, until August 1994, in a column of the same name by the writer Simone Borowiak and, from 1987 to August 2004, regularly in the satirical magazine Titanic. Model for the name was Gerhard Sondermann, the first publisher of Titanic. Sondermann is a creation of an illustrator, who, as Bernd Pfarr himself once said, wants "to drive reality out of the pictures".

The comic

The world of Sondermann is subject to its own, individual laws: "Negro scrubbing" (German: "Negerschrubben") is a traditional ritual at Sondermann's company, Sondermann and his boss subdue their hunger by "huddling softly together" (German: "sich weich aneinander schmiegen"), consuming a Schnitzel and taking out the trash are common yoga exercises, and Sondermann defeats God (German: "den lieben Gott") in Tennis. Sondermann's world is populated by strange creatures: Early Sondermann episodes mostly limited themselves to the master-servant relationship between Sondermann and his boss. The pandemonium of the above-listed characters grew gradually out of this fundamental conflict. According to writer Robert Gernhardt, the character very soon developed a "life of its own" (German: "Eigenleben"), for which even the editorial staff of Titanic was not prepared.

Sondermann Award

Since 2004, the name of Bernd Pfarr's character also denotes an audience prize for comics awarded by and at the Frankfurt Book Fair in collaboration with the magazine Comixene, the Frankfurter Rundschau, and Spiegel Online. Some of the prizes include a cash sum.

Recipients 2004

Recipients 2005

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Recipients 2010

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Recipients 2019