Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer Wiki

Hi there! Just a reminder that collaboration is key. This wiki is built, supported, and owned by all participating community members. You can read more about it here. And to help you communicate with each other, you can create an account.

READ MORE

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Burgermeister Meisterburger
Burger Meister

Gender

Male

Species

Human

Eye Colour

Black

Hair/Beard Colour

Gray

Friends

Grimsley

Enemies

Kris Kringle, Jessica, Topper, Winter Warlock, Tanta Kringle, Dingle Kringle, Ringle Kringle, Tingle Kringle, Wingle Kringle, Zingle Kringle

Voiced By

Paul Frees

Appears In

Santa Claus Is Comin To Town

Burgermeister Meisterburger is the main antagonist of the 1970 Christmas TV special, Santa Claus Is Comin To Town which is a prequel to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He is the sadistic and oppressive abusive mayor of Sombertown who despises toys and will arrest anyone who possesses or owns a toy.

He was voiced by Paul Frees, who also voiced Grimsley, Topper, and Doctor from the same movie, Kubla Kraus from Jack Frost, as well as Aeon the Terrible, General Ticker, 1776, Humpty Dumpty, Jack Frost and Winterbolt from the Rudolph sequels.

Role[]

Meisterburger first appears in the special intro when Grimsley brings his master the infant Claus and a letter was left for the Burgermeister to take care of the baby. However, rather than raising the baby as his own, Meisterburger instead orders Grimsley to take the baby to the local orphanage. Grimsley loses the baby while doing so due to a storm, and Claus ends up rescued by animals and raised by the Kringles, a family of Elves who give him the name Kris with their queen Tanta Kringle being his legal guardian. After making toys all his life, the young Kris determines that the Kringles should once again give out their wonderful toys, and sets out for Sombertown.

However, unknown to Kris, Meisterburger has written a law banishing everyone to have toys under the threat of imprisonment after accidentally slipping on a toy duck claiming that he hates toys and that toys hate him. This forces the upset children to spend their time doing extra chores. When Kris Kringle finally arrives to Sombertown, he is avoided by many of the citizens and chastised by a local teacher named Jessica, who tells him about Meisterburger's law. However, Kris finds the law to be quite silly and gives Jessica a china doll that her parents won't get her when she was very young, thereby proving his point to her. Gaining Jessica and a lonely penguin named Topper to his side, Kris starts giving the toys to cheer up the children, which results the angry Meisterburger to declare Kris a wanted criminal.

Despite Meisterburger ordering Grimsley and his men to arrest Kris, the latter was able to make clear escape routes due to his experiences in the woods. As the months go by, Kris and the Kringle family were able to provide more better ways to deliver toys (with the help from several animals and the Winter Warlock) without attracting the authorities, such as going down chimneys and placing stockings near the fireplace. Fed up with all the failures to capture Kris, Meisterburger personally sets up a trap by capturing Topper and holding him hostage to force Kris to surrender. He also gets Grimsley and his men to arrest the Kringle family and the Winter Warlock, and had their workshop and toys burned down, much to the children's distraught.

Satisfied that he finally destroyed all the toys and put the entire Kringle family and the Winter Warlock in prison, Meisterburger mocks Jessica of her pleas to release them, as he stubbornly refuses to believe that his anti-toy law is so silly to begin with. Finally seeing what a complete megalomaniac that Meisterburger really is, Jessica manages to free the Kringle family and the Warlock by giving several reindeer the ability to fly (thanks to some magic corn that the Warlock gave to Jessica). With that in mind, the reindeer help Kris, Topper, the Kringle family and the Warlock escape into the woods, much to Meisterburger's anger.

Declaring the Kringle family and the Warlock as wanted outlaws, Meisterburger swears to have his forces and heirs hunt them down throughout the land to have them recaptured again. However, the Kringle family and the Warlock moved to the North Pole to evade capture right before Kris grows a beard and uses his original surname (Santa Claus) to avoid any unwanted attention. He even build up a new workshop at the North Pole and married Jessica (who is now known as Mrs. Claus).

As the years go by, Santa and his friends continue making toys and delivering them to Sombertown, and the Meisterburger family finally died off after falling off from power over Sombertown, with the citizens finally realizing how silly the Bergermeister's law was before praising Santa as a legend. For all his demands and huffing and puffing, the Burgermeister merely became the sand in the oyster's shell, the irritant that produced a legend loved by children everywhere.

Advertisement