Cabaret

Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue - a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. The turn of the 20th century introduced a revolutionized cabaret culture. Performers included the spectacular Josephine Baker and the legendary infamous Brazilian drag performer João Francisco dos Santos (aka Madame Sata), both of African descent. The venue itself can also be called a "cabaret." These performances could range from political satire to light entertainment, each being introduced by a master of ceremonies, or MC.

German-speaking cabaret

Twenty years later, Ernst von Wolzogen founded the first German cabaret, later known as Buntes Theater (colourful theatre). All forms of public criticism were banned by a censor on theatres in the German Empire, however. This was lifted at the end of the First World War, allowing the cabaret artists to deal with social themes and political developments of the time. This meant that German cabaret really began to blossom in the 1920s and 1930s, bringing forth all kinds of new cabaret artists such as Werner Finck at the Katakombe, Karl Valentin at the Wien-München, and Cläre Waldorf. Some of their texts were written by great literary figures such as Kurt Tucholsky, Erich Kästner, and Klaus Mann.

Related Topics:
German - German Empire - First World War - Werner Finck - Karl Valentin - Cläre Waldorf - Kurt Tucholsky - Erich Kästner - Klaus Mann

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When the Nazi party came to power in 1933, they started to repress this intellectual criticism of the times. Cabaret in Germany was hit badly: In 1935 Werner Finck was briefly imprisoned and sent to a concentration camp; at the end of that year Kurt Tucholsky committed suicide; and nearly all German-speaking cabaret artists fled into exile in Switzerland, France, Scandinavia, or the USA. What remained in Germany was a state-controlled cabaret where jokes were told or the people were encouraged to keep their chins up.

Related Topics:
Nazi party - 1933 - 1935 - Werner Finck - Concentration camp - Switzerland - France - Scandinavia - USA

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When the war ended, the occupying powers ensured that the cabarets portrayed the horrors of the Nazi regime. Soon, various cabarets were also dealing with the government, the Cold War and the Wirtschaftswunder: the Tol(l)leranten in Mainz, the Kom(m)ödchen in Düsseldorf and the Münchner Lach- und Schießgesellschaft in Munich. These were followed in the 1950s by television cabaret.

Related Topics:
Nazi - Cold War - Wirtschaftswunder - Mainz - Düsseldorf - Munich

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In the GDR, the first state cabaret was opened in 1953, Berlin's Die Distel. It was censored and did not criticise the state.

Related Topics:
GDR - 1953 - Berlin

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In the 1960s, West German cabaret was centred around Düsseldorf, Munich, and Berlin. At the end of the decade, the students' movement of May 1968 split opinion on the genre as some old cabaret artists were booed off the stage for being part of the old establishment. In the 1970s, new forms of cabaret developed such as the television show Notizen aus der Provinz (Notes from the Sticks). At the end of the 1980s, political cabaret was an important part of social criticism, with a minor boom at the time of German reunification. In eastern Germany, cabarets had been growing more and more daring in their criticism of politicians in the time leading up to 1989. After reunification, new social problems, such as mass unemployment, the privatisation of companies, and rapid changes in society, meant that cabarets rose in number. Dresden, for example, gained two new cabarets alongside the popular Herkuleskeule.

Related Topics:
Düsseldorf - Munich - Berlin - May 1968 - German reunification - 1989 - Dresden

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In the 1990s and at the start of the new millennium, the television and film comedy boom and a lessening of public interest in politics meant that television cabaret audiences in Germany dropped.

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Famous Kabarettists

• Karl Farkas
• Werner Finck
• Erich Kästner
• Klaus Mann
• Jura Soyfer
• Kurt Tucholsky
• Karl Valentin
• Cläre Waldorf