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Burgermeister Meisterburger (German: town mayor, master citizen) is the main antagonist of the Rankin/Bass special Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town. He is the grouchy, fun-loathing mayor and essential dictator of Sombertown, a mountainous Germanic town located near Tanta Kringle's home. He hates toys (although he did enjoy the yo-yo Kris gave him for a short time) and, after he trips on a toy duck while walking out of city hall, he passes a law declaring toys "illegal, immoral, unlawful, and anyone found with a toy in his possession will be placed under arrest and thrown in the dungeon. No kidding!" This makes the children of Sombertown even more miserable than ever and are forced to do chores instead of playing.
==Personally==
Burgermeister Meisterburger is very political to power.
==Biography==
Meisterburger first appeared in the beginning when his right-hand man Grimsby found an infant Santa Claus, and a letter was left on the front door for the Burgermeister to take care of the baby. However, Meisterburger refuses to take care of the baby and instead orders Grimsby to take him to the local orphanage. Grimsby loses the baby while doing so due to a storm, and Claus ends up rescued by animals and found by an elf family known as the Kringles, who named him Kris and raised him as their own. Several years after being taught how to make toys, a young Kris decide to set out for Sombertown so that he can give the toys to the children to cheer their spirits.
Unknown to Kris and the Kringles, Meisterburger has ordered a law to be enforced forbidding toys under the threat of imprisonment after he accidentally slips on a toy duck and breaks his leg. This forces the upset children to spend their fun time doing extra chores. When Kris finally arrives to Sombertown, he is avoided by many of the citizens and chastised by a local teacher 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 did not get her when she was young, thereby proving his point to her. Winning Jessica and a lonely penguin named Topper to his side, Kris starts giving the toys to cheer up the children, which causes an angry Meisterburger to declare Kris Kringle a wanted outlaw.
Although Meisterburger orders Grimsby and his men to arrest Kris, the latter was able to safely escape due to his experiences in the woods, eventually forming a friendship with the Winter Warlock after giving him a toy train. As the months go by, Kris and the Kringle family are able to provide better ways to deliver toys with the help from Jessica, the Winter Warlock and the animals, such as going down chimneys and putting the toys in stockings near the fireplaces. Fed up with all his failures to capture him and prevent him from delivering toys, Meisterburger personally sets up a trap for Kris by capturing Topper and holding him hostage to force Kris to surrender. He also gets Grimsby and his men to arrest the Kringle family and the Winter Warlock, and has them imprisoned and the toys burned publicly in the town square, much to the children's dismay and sadness.
Satisfied and triumphant that he has finally destroyed all of the toys and put the entire Kringle family and the Winter Warlock in prison, Meisterburger contemptuously mocks Jessica when she pleads with him 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 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 complete anger.
Declaring the Kringle family and the Warlock as wanted outlaws, Meisterburger swears that he and his soldiers will hunt them down throughout the land to have them either recaptured or killed. However, the Kringle family and the Warlock moved to the North Pole, during which Kris grows a beard and uses his original name "Santa Claus" to avoid any unwanted attention. He even builds a new workshop at the North Pole and marries Jessica, who goes by the name Mrs. Claus.
As the years go by, Santa and his friends perpetually continue making toys and delivering them to Sombertown, and Meisterburger and his forces eventually died off and fell out of power, as the townspeople finally realize how silly Meisterburger's laws were and praise Santa as a legend, and his picture of himself was disposed of, replacing it with the picture of Santa Claus. For all of his demands and huffing and puffing, Meisterburger merely becomes the sand in the oyster's shell, the obstreperous irritant that produced a legend loved by children everywhere, while he becomes nothing more than a distant memory.
==Personality==
Burgermeister Meisterburger is portrayed as the defamatory, opprobrious, argumentative, fun-loathing and vituperative mayor of Sombertown, who takes pride in making the citizens sad and miserable. He is very nasty, obnoxious, contemptuous, and disdainful, and he hates toys (although he did briefly enjoy the yo-yo Kris gave him for a short time before being told by Grimsby that he is breaking his own rule_ and, after he breaks his leg from tripping on a toy duck while walking out of City Hall, he issues a law declaring toys "illegal, immoral, unlawful, and anyone found with a toy in his possession will be placed under arrest and thrown in the dungeon. No kidding!". This makes the children of Sombertown even more miserable than ever and they are forced to do chores instead of playing. He is also shown to be very censorious and sarcastic towards others.
==Quotes==
“Toys are hereby declared illegal, immoral, unlawful, and anyone with a toy in his possession will be placed under arrest and thrown in the dungeon. No kidding!„ ~ Burgermeister Meisterburger on his "law".
“I will do I should have done a long time ago. I will set a trap for that bothersome Kringle! His next visit to Sombertown will be his last!„~ Burgermeister Meisterburger plotting to capture Kris Kringle.
“Children of Sombertown, you will never, never play again!„ ~ Burgermeister Meisterburger as he destroys the toys by setting them on fire, much to the children's sadness.
==Trivia==
*The character of Burgermeister Meisterburger is likely a caricature of militaristic German society and has some basis in real German leaders, such as or .
*Burgermeister Meisterburger is one of the few Rankin-Bass holiday special villains not to be redeemed. He is also one of the few Rankin-Bass villains not to receive any comeuppance (other than quietly dying offscreen, which is stated by the special's narrator, S.D. Kluger).
*It is unknown how the Burgermeister died as his death wasn't shown on screen, along with his descendants, but it can be implied that they all simply died of old age without any heirs.
*Burgermeister Meisterburger is one of the most evil holiday special villains, as he burned down children's toys and destroyed the Kringle's home.
*Billy Bletcher was considered to voice Burgermeister Meisterburger.
==Gallery==
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Burgermeister strooling .jpg|PLAYING WITH THEIR TOYS?!
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==Info==
When Burgermeister finds out that Kris Kringle is still delivering toys to Sombertown, he stops at nothing to capture Kris and stop him from bringing fun and play into his town. Burgermeister arrests Kris along with the Kringles and the Winter Warlock, but the local schoolteacher, Miss Jessica, who has fallen in love with Kris, sets them free with the help of the reindeer. Burgermeister Meisterburger vows that he and his descendants will hunt Kris down throughout the land, and labels the toy-maker an outlaw. However, Kris is able to evade the Burgermeister and his heirs and goes on to start his life as Santa Claus.
But as time goes by, things change. By the end of the special, it is revealed that the Meisterburgers eventually died off and fell out of power over Sombertown. By then, the people have realized how silly the Meisterburgers' laws are, and that Kris and Santa Claus are one and the same. It is only after the Meisterburger name sinks into obscurity that Santa Claus is no longer seen as an outlaw.
==Notes==
The character of Burgermeister Meisterburger is likely a caricature of militaristic German society and has some basis in real German leaders, such as Adolf Hitler or Wilhelm II, German Emperor the Kaiser. Burgermeister Meisterburger is one of the few Rankin-Bass holiday special villains not to be redeemed. He is also one of the few Rankin-Bass villains not to receive any comeuppance (other than quietly dying offscreen as stated by the narrator, S. D. Kluger). It is unknown how the Burgermeister died as his death wasn't shown on screen, but it can be implied that he simply died of old age and that most of his heirs were presumably arrested. Burgermeister Meisterburger seemed to be one of the ruthless holiday special villains as he burned down the toys as well as Kris Kringle's house.