25.1.2018 by Mervi
Unbelievable but true! Today Knutitours celebrates it’s 10th anniversary! When I started this tour I never thought I would be writing this. I never believed Knutitours would still be going strong after all these years.
What is Knutitours? It’s impossible to answer that question with only a few words but if I try to answer in a ‘nut shell’ – Knutitours is a mixture of the real world and a very special virtual fantasy world. Our tour started in the Knuipe and a little later Knuti’s Weekly Magazine was introduced.
There have been ups and downs during the long journey – from small mishaps to a total crash but like the bird Fenix Knutitours has always arised from the ashes.
I think this photo of Knuti-Judi and me watching Knut in a pouring rain describes the journey quite well. Together with all the Knuipe bloggers and the readers of Knuti’s Weekly Magazine we have kept the motor running in spite of the very bad weather sometimes!
Because everybody reading this article knows what this Magazine is about I want to share some memories of our hangout the Knuipe instead of telling the history of Knuti’s Weekly. It was, of course, a crazy idea to base a Magazine on articles and reports from different zoos because I myself very seldom have a possibility to visit a zoo. However, thanks to many excellent reporters and photographers the Magazine has become what it is today. I’m truly grateful for everybody for their help!
…. but now to the Knuipe!
The Knuipe ‘headquarters’ is placed in Berlin so ‘Ich habe immer einen Koffer in Berlin’. 
But the Knuipe can be anywhere when needed ….
In 1985 I visited ‘Zur Kneipe’ in Rankestrasse 9. When I created the Knuipe I must have had the memories of that cosy Kneipe in my mind although I had forgotten my visit. Viktor kindly made this picture of the facade and, naturally, Knut was our dear Waiter in the beginning.
When Vesa and I attended Knut’s first birthday we even visited ‘Zur Kneipe’. What a surprise it was to see it looked just like the Knuipe I had created in my mind! Sometimes our memories are well hidden but they’re still there ….
So many birthdays have been celebrated here! So many parties we’ve had with excellent musical entertainment by the Tyrolian Mighty Bears Orchestra and our fantastic choir ‘Orthopädische Strümpfe’.
I could never have managed to keep the Knutitours going without lots of help from many talented writers, photographers and collage makers. As an example I can mention Annemarie’s morning bulletines which are already classics with lots of humour and with her never ending phantasy.
Oh bear, there were lots of mishaps with our roller skating Waiter …. but noboby could ever be angry with him. This collage was made by Bauz.
The sky is the limit for the imagination of the Knuipe bloggers! All ‘our bears’ have their very special characteristics. For instance we found out that pink is Flocke’s favourite colour. Of course, I’ve made many collages of our ‘Pinkie’. I made Flocke carry a pink handbag and the funny thing is that when I once forgot it everybody was asking ‘Where’s Flocke’s handbag?’
Here Fräulein Flocke wanted to take ballet lessons. There’s no doubt she was the prima ballerina and the primadonna assoluta of this ballet ensemble!
When the time passed Flocke, Giovanna and Rasputin were helping our Waiter. Their speciality was to quality control all the food served in the Knuipe. They certainly took their job very seriously.
The Four Leaf Clover by Caren
The Knuipe parties are always special occasions and every polar bear with self respect wants to attend them. So if you see this bus on the Autobahn you know where it’s heading!
We have shared sad times and good times in our Knuipe. We were in deep morning when Knut – our beloved Waiter – had to leave us far too soon. At that time I was asking myself if there was any meaning in continuing but then I thought that keeping the Knutitours going was a tribute to Knut! That’s why I didn’t even change the name of Knuti’s Weekly Magazine.
At the same time there were severe server problems so the Knuipe had to be placed temporarily in KWM. After the problems were solved it felt a bit sad to reopen it in the usual place without our Waiter. However, somebody – I think it was Caren – suggested that Yoghi and Ludwig from Hellabrunn could help us to maintain the good service.
Sadly even Yoghi had to leave us far too soon but even his spirit is still with us!
I can’t remember when Uncle Sergej made his entré but he came to stay! He’s Raspi’s uncle who claims he’s one of the Romanovs. Well, we may have doubts about that but our dear Serjoscha certainly has a colourful past. He’s been a cosmonaut, a secret agent, a world class ping pong player, a talented ice skater – just to mention some of his skils.
Annemarie found out Uncle Sergej is married to Madama Ninotschka (we call her Nini) and they have 14 cubs who never grow older. Nini used to be the prima ballerina in the Bolshoj Theatre and she still dances for us on special occasions.
Uncle Sergej’s speciality is creating new drinks. There’s one thing common for his drinks – they all are real Micky Finns. The word ‘light’ doesn’t exist in his vocabulary. He loves to sample his creations so very often he’s ‘under influence of inventions’ to put it nicely. Very often the good old chap entertains us playing his balalajka and singing Russian songs.
The Knuipe is always open and you must admit the personnel has very pleasant working hours!
As an example of the real world I want to mention the story of Tweetie. Britta-Gudrun found the little bird helpless on the ground and took care of it until it could fly away – hopefully with fellow birds. We were following daily Tweetie’s development from a ‘naked’ tiny creature to a beautiful bird.
Food is a very important issue in our Knuipe so Knut wrote a cook book for us. This book doesn’t contain any green recipees!
Because many of us like sports all the Championships and Olympic Games have been followed very thoroughly. During this anniversary year I’m going to publish both culinary and sporty nostalgie in this Magazine.
Fiete was carrying the fire in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
In spite of the weather and slippery roads there are always visitors in the Knuipe! I want to thank all of them for being there. Some of you have left during the years , some of you have become silent readers but I’m glad there still are so many frequent visitors!
The Knuipe and Knuti’s Weekly Magazine make the Knutitours. I want to think they are my humble way to connect animal lovers all over the world and I’m glad knowing that there really are readers in every corner of the world!
Our magic bear is still the guiding star on our journey.
Sometimes we need to see things from the opposite perspective ….
Because I don’t want make our four legged friends scared the Knutitours’ fireworks are made of words and pictures – by some memories from the past ten years by Dumba, Ludmila, Patricia and Ralph!
Thank you all for the 10 years! The journey goes on – welcome to fly with the Knutitours!
