Wilhelm Helmrich

Wilhelm Helmrich was a German puppeteer who performed Finchen from 1986-1991 on the German co-production of Sesame Street, Sesamstrasse. On that show he got to work with other German puppeteers such as Marita Stolze, Kerstin Siebmann-Roders, Herbert Langemann, and many others. Outside Wilhelm was a principal puppeteer on the show Hallo Spencer from the beginning in 1979 to 1991 as Elvis and other recurring/minor characters. Helmrich played the devil figure Nero, villager Edigus Soltanelle, Kalle Akademix in a spin-off series, and numerous others. I wonder how he got selected to perform on Hallo Spencer and Sesamstrasse during his career. It's a shame he never did any other production after 1991 as that's the year he died. Despite being gone, Wilhelm Helmrich will never be forgotten by those who've worked with him and the German viewers who've seen his work on those shows. He also worked with a bunch of other puppeteers who worked on Sesamstrasse later in their careers. Performers such as Karime Valkilzadeh, Friedrich Wollweber, Joachim Hall, and Charlie Kaiser, just to name a few. I certainly hope Wilhelm is still watching the people over at Sesamstrasse from heaven and is proud of his successors for taking on the role of Finchen, even though they changed the gender of the character. Helmrich was the last performer to do Finchen as a male character, as his successors were females, so the character gender had to be changed. And people will certainly remember him for all of the puppet characters he did when he was alive. There's always room in heaven for more puppeteers, if there is such a thing. Wilhelm Helmrich, you've done wonderful on Sesamstrasse and Hallo Spencer. You may be gone, but nobody will ever forget how much humor you brought to your characters. And I hope other people across the world will start to look up your history and see your work online. You never know Wilhelm. Rest in peace Helmrich!