Sesamstrasse Theme

Music by	Ingfried Hoffmann
Lyrics by	Volker Ludwig
Date	1973

The 2012 Muppet cast during the theme sequence.

The Sesamstrasse Theme is the familiar opening theme song of Sesamstrasse.

Openings

The lyrics to the German theme song are Der, die, das (wer, wie, was – wieso, weshalb, warum – wer nicht fragt, bleibt dumm!), literally translating to This, this and that (who, how, what - why, why and why - those who don't ask stay dumb!).

The openings have varied slightly over the years, mainly consisting of footage with children until 2000, in which the German Muppet characters were used for the first time. (However, they were shown in the openings on a few occasions, like the 1000th episode for example.) The original theme song from 1973 was also sung by children, and was re-recorded in 1995. Also starting in 2000, the theme is now played in the key of G, instead of the key of A, and in 2006, the theme was sung by the German Muppet cast.

Since 2012, the opening has featured the current Muppet cast of the show, along with live kids, in an animated environment. Lena Meyer-Landrut performs the vocals for this version.

From 1973 to 2000, the openings also utilized several animated episode number sequences before the theme song, with three being re-used from the original American Sesame Street series (albeit with entirely re-recorded music and altered colors). Unlike Sesame Street which stopped using the animated sequences after season 6, Sesamstrasse continued to use these segments long into the 1990s, as well as creating their own opening animation sequences. The German versions of the American segments were phased out after 1995, when Sesamstrasse stopped airing repeats of the 80s episodes, and the number sequences were eventually discontinued after 2000.

Closings

The original closing theme title was Malen, Pinseln, Streichen, Schmieren. The song, fittingly enough, signaled the end of each Sesamstrasse episode, by encouraging the viewers do something active. Sure enough, from the '70s up until 2000, footage primarily consisted of children engaging in various activities. Starting in the 80s, some episodes used an instrumental version of the closing theme playing during various short animation segments (e.g. a parade of monsters; a German chef; a train of animals playing country music). At least a few of them even featured the Plonsters, while others were even educational (one featuring a group of animals littering). Similar to the opening theme, the closing song was also re-recorded in 1995. Starting in 2000, an instrumental version of the opening theme was used with cues from the original closing theme. In 2013, the credit sequences were dropped and copyright production credits are displayed towards the end of the episode.