Murmeltier Phil

It is good to know that Punxsutawney Phil and his shadow will be carefully watched tomorrow from across the ocean. Again this year, already staking out strategic positions to record the meteorologically gifted groundhog's behavior are a German radio station a German television. More are expected. Phil and his shadow for some reason are big in the Fatherland.

I know the Germans have always had a thing for the American West, from the Karl May novels (think: the Zane Grey of Saxony) to an empathy for the story of the American Indian. Once I approached the shores of the Oder River near the Polish border to find hundreds of teepees fanning across the horizon. The Germans were painstakingly re-enacting the lives of Sioux, Blackfoot etc... and the former DDR residents told how they, in particular, grew up identifying with the struggle of the noble native.

I did not know they identified with an Eastern whistlepig as well.

In addition to the charter jets of Germans who come here for Punxsutawney Phil (the German marketing team of PA Tourism got a travel tour operator in Deutschland to create a special hotel and flight package for the event), the groundhog has a considerable following online.

The curious might want to poke around MyVideo.de or Clipfish.de, SevenLoad.de or HiClip.de. (try this.)

These are mostly links to http://www.groundhogcrossing.com/ - the latest campaign by the PA tourism people to garner interest in Phil. Past years have presented Phil as a character in The Shining. This year is equally shiny, with text messaging and voice mail, more videos. The theme is a travelogue/detective story -- Phil is missing, tired of the guessing game.

The viral marketers have arranged it so if you can't watch Phil live, starting at 7 a.m. Friday, you can sign up at  http://groundhog.visitpa.com for emails and cell phone messages about whether or not he's predicting another six weeks of winter.

Last year, the webcast was followed in 100 countries, viewed more than 70,000 times over three days, according to Natalie DiPasquale, who is handling Phil's stateside press.

The news of the groundhog is being covered this way in Germany:

Wie lange dauert der Winter noch? Diese Frage beantwortet alljährlich am 2. Februar das Murmeltier Phil (Groundhog Phil). Der Ort des Geschehens: Eine Stadt mit dem schwer aussprechbaren Namen Punxsutawney (etwa: Panxetoni) im US-Bundesstaat Pennsylvania, rund 130 Kilometer nordöstlich von Pittsburgh. Pünktlich zum Sonnenaufgang holen die Herren des Inner Circle, die offiziell für Phils Wohlergehen und die Organisation des Murmeltier-Events verantwortlich sind, das Tier aus dem Baumstamm, in dem es seinen Winterschlaf hält. Das Objekt der Begierde ist der Schatten, den das Murmeltier bei seinem ersten Blick aus der Behausung wirft – oder eben nicht: Sieht man bei klaren Witterungsverhältnissen einen Schatten, wird es in der Region noch für mindestens sechs Wochen Winter bleiben. Ist aufgrund einer bewölkten Wetterlage kein dunkler Fleck zu erkennen, so naht der Frühling.

All you really need to know is that over there, they call him Murmeltier Phil.

Ja.

Again, Why?

Meike Pezl, works at Noble Kommunukation in Neu-Isenburg, Germany. It is a stretch to say she is Phil's German representative, but she is heading up the PR campaign. Pezl says by email that for four years German media have come to Pennsylvania to cover the groundhog.

She has a couple ideas why this has caught on (other than it's a day that doesn't float in the calendar, so the travel/tourism people can better plan around Feb. 2 each year.)

"Germans regularly watch weather forecasts and there are several unusual ways of presenting it on television. A most unusual one is Phil -- a cute animal. Germans also love animals," she adds.

And yes, it's not just the Buddhist who love watching Groundhog Day, the Bill Murray movie, each year.

She thinks there might be precedent for animal weather foretellers -- "it is said that the tradition goes back to German with originally a hedgehog."

Horst the Hedgehog.  (I have made that part up.)

Yeah, its a Pennsylvania German tradition from Europe, so it shouldn't be a shock that Germans are into it. Next thing you are going to tell me is that the Germans are into our Fasnacht Day as well. Du spinnst!

As I read this, I am sitting in my Berlin office. I work here as a translator, but I didn't know the Germans were into that stuff...

I'll have to pay attention to the radio tonight and see if they mention anything. 

Excellent!  Ausgezeichnet! 

Horst the Hedgehog? That would be Igel Ingo...  But the Sioux on the Oder were fun, weren't they?