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The Business Guinea PigsA FLITCH brand
DEEN
The neighborhood and the garden center

Who else is in the story

The people on the street who ask the right question at the right moment. And the garden center where the hay comes from.

At Knut's garden center

This is where the hay comes from. And this is where the kids learn what wages, prices and savings mean in real life.

Knut, the gardener, character from The Business Guinea Pigs
The gardener, runs a garden center with a farm stand

Knut

Knut delivers the hay for the guinea pigs. In Volume 2 he's still Knabber-Knut with the bargain-price flyer. Later the kids really get to know him at his garden center: friendly, a bit chaotic and very honest. He's always looking for notes that Ina found ages ago.

Trademarks: chalk instead of a pen, the big black price board in the yard and the jar labeled WINTER RESERVE.

Typical Knut: “You don't play tricks with trust.” · “Good months have to carry the bad ones.”

I don't promise anything I haven't calculated.

Knut

Volume 2Volume 3Volume 4Volume 5Volume 6

Ina, the bookkeeper, a character from The Business Guinea Pigs
Knut's bookkeeper

Ina

Ina does Knut's bookkeeping and knows where the note is. Most of the time. She explains a pay slip to the kids with three boxes: gross, deductions, net. In Volume 5 she works out with Knut what his hay really has to cost. She's calm, precise and dryly funny, and private numbers stay private with her.

Trademarks: the office full of binders, the big calculator and the reserve jar on the windowsill.

Typical Ina: “Allowed is not automatically fair.” · “Nice is good. But in bookkeeping, 'kindly meant' is not a way of calculating.”

A payslip is not a wish list.

Ina

Volume 4Volume 5

Jonas, the warehouse worker, character from The Business Guinea Pigs
The new guy in Knut's warehouse

Jonas

Jonas first shows up in Volume 4, and the first thing he does is catch a toppling stack of hay sacks. He spent the summer helping out on the farm of Knut's brother and is looking for something steady. He's helpful, down to earth and has a dry sense of humor. First he helps by chance. Then for real.

Trademarks: the rust-red hoodie, hay sacks on his shoulder and his line that he just happened to be in the area anyway.

Typical Jonas: “If you need somebody, say the word.” · “It also depends on what the work is worth.”

You don’t sign a contract in a doorway.

Jonas

Volume 4Volume 5

In the neighborhood

The people on the street who ask the right question at the right moment. Or steal a shoelace.

Mr. Berger, the neighbor with the newspaper, character from The Business Guinea Pigs
The neighbor with the newspaper

Mr. Berger

It all starts with Mr. Berger. In Volume 1 he casually asks the kids whether they're being good and paying their taxes, and nobody knows what to say. He likes asking questions that have no quick answer and loves quoting his grandmother. In Volume 6 he explains that you can own shares in a company without ever having been there. Friendly, a bit of a know-it-all, never grumpy and hardly ever without a newspaper.

Trademarks: the newspaper under his arm and the line he says in almost every volume.

Typical Mr. Berger: “You can make money with this. You can also lose money with this. Anyone who only tells the first half isn't telling the truth.”

And remember — somebody always takes a cut.

Mr. Berger

Volume 1Volume 2Volume 3Volume 4Volume 5Volume 6

Mrs. Müller, the neighbor, character from The Business Guinea Pigs
The neighbor, a dental technician

Mrs. Müller

Mrs. Müller already buys two glasses of lemonade in Volume 1, one for herself and one, she says, for the dog. In Volume 5 you really get to know her: warm, quick-witted, laughing before she even says anything. As a dental technician, she knows that sometimes it isn't the work that gets more expensive, but the materials. She calls Filip her little evidence collector. Her husband, Mr. Müller, is mostly known for his armchair.

Trademarks: black glasses, big silver hoop earrings and Mr. Müller's armchair, which Zottel is not allowed to sit on.

Typical Mrs. Müller: “My mistake wasn't that I didn't know something. My mistake was thinking the others must know.”

First we laugh a little. Then we do the math properly.

Mrs. Müller

Volume 1Volume 4Volume 5Volume 6

Filip, the neighbor's boy with a camera, character from The Business Guinea Pigs
The evidence collector, neighbor's boy, age 13

Filip

Filip lives a little farther down the street and walks Zottel for Mrs. Müller. He doesn't believe anything just because someone says it. He asks: How do we know that? With his camera he photographs price tags before everyone gets used to the new prices. And slowly he's starting to suspect that something about the guinea pigs isn't quite right.

Trademarks: the camera around his neck, the photo folder of dated pictures and red high-tops whose laces are always in danger.

Typical Filip: “Is that really the same thing?” · “Then that's all we know. Nothing more.”

I photograph things before everybody says: It's always been like that.

Filip

Volume 5Volume 6

Zottel, Mrs. Müller's wire-haired dachshund, character from The Business Guinea Pigs
The collector, Mrs. Müller's wire-haired dachshund

Zottel

Zottel never says a word. He doesn't need to. He steals Filip's red shoelaces, buries a potato in Knut's herb bed and sits on anything he wants to keep. In Volume 6 even a card disappears into the flower bed. Whatever he confiscates belongs to him. He's modeled on Christian's real dog, who has the same name.

Trademark: First bury it. Then sit on it. Then it's his.

Volume 5Volume 6

Who appears in which volume?

A dot means the character appears or is mentioned in that volume.

Character123456
Daria●●●●●●
Christian●●●●●●
Rocky●●●●●●
Mr. Grey●●●●●●
Toffy●●●●●●
Mojito●●●●●●
Knut●●●●●
Ina●●
Jonas●●
Mr. Berger●●●●●●
Mrs. Müller●●●●
Filip●●
Zottel●●