The heiress of Wolfgang Franke, the author of the German text version, also agreed to the agreement. This ended the legal dispute, Pippi’s anarchistic credo “Two times three makes four, widewidewitt and three makes nine, I make the world widewideas I like it” can continue to be spread.
The Hamburg Regional Court decided in December 2020 that the heirs of the Swedish children’s book author must be involved in the exploitation of the lyrics. Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002) expressly refused in 1969 for the author of the German text version of “Härkommer Pippi Långstrump”, Wolfgang Franke, to name himself as the sole author. Franke’s version became known through the German-Swedish television series that came out in the same year.
Income is shared
The court found that Franke’s text was a so-called non-free adaptation of a legally protected character. He ties directly to the creation of Astrid Lindgren. The melody of the song by Jan Johansson and Konrad Elfers was not affected by the lawsuit.
According to the agreement, Lindgren will now be registered as a co-author of the lyrics with the collecting society Gema, and the income will be shared in the future. The Lindgren heirs will share in the distribution of the income withheld because of the legal dispute.