German puppet builder. After the war, Fritz Herbert Bross interrupted his successful career as an engineer to devote himself exclusively to the creation and manufacture of string puppets. For that he took advantage of his technical training and knowledge of art history.

From 1958 to 1967, Bross was the director of the Seminar für Marionettenbau und -führung (department for the production and staging of puppets) at the Deutsches Institut für Puppenspiel (DIP; German Institute for Puppet Theatre) in Bochum. He later took charge of the artistic direction of Gerhards Marionetten (Gerhard’s Marionettes) in Schwäbisch Hall. Considering string puppets as “technical and artistic entities”, he introduced revolutionary physical concepts in manufacturing them. He fashioned his puppet heads in such a way that the interchange of light and movement enhanced by his mastery of colour gave the puppets an extraordinary range of expressions and therefore an amazing liveliness. His great gift as a teacher had a profound influence on many puppeteers and interested lay performers.

(See Germany.)