Political cabaret in Germany: a tradition that now parodies Merz and his grand coalition

BerlinRenew or die. The cabaret Berlin politician renews his repertoire with the change of government in Germany and the arrival of the conservative Friedrich Merz to the chancelleryThe German dictionary Duden defines cabaret, a Germanized word originating from French cabaret, as "minor art in the form of sketches and songs that parodic and humorously criticize the political situation or current events."

German cabaret artists know how to react quickly to every twist and turn in the great German political circus. They use humor, irony, and exaggeration. They laugh at politicians, leave no stone unturned, and spin the latest news through their satirical grinder with the aim of entertaining the audience.

Timo Doleys, author and cabaret artist at the Distel cabaret theater in Berlin, had to revise the script for his show overnight. Ampeltherapy (Traffic Light Therapy), released in October 2024, to quickly adapt it to the new German political reality. It did so on the same night as the breakup of the traffic light coalition in November, named after the colors of the parties that formed it: red for the Social Democrats, yellow for the Liberals, and green for the Environmentalists.

Coinciding with Merz's arrival at the Chancellery, the Distel cabaret-theater is currently presenting The SchMERZ Therapy (Pain therapy), making a play on words between the word Schmerz (pain, in German) and the surname of the new chancellor.

On stage, three cabaret artists – Timo Doleys as the therapist, Jens Eulenberger as Merz and other German politicians, and Samia Dauenhauerse – use satire, farce, and song to offer humorous political criticism, delighting the audience.

In a country like Germany, where political parties are condemned to understand each other and govern in coalition, the Distel "therapist" invites German politicians to undergo group therapy with team-building activities. The goal: to strengthen team spirit, listen to each other, engage in trust-building exercises, empathize with political adversaries, and build bridges between them. After all, the new Merz coalition Between conservatives and social democrats, it should be a loving union, not a forced marriage.

The origins of 'kabarett'

Inspired by the famous Parisian cabaret Le Chat Noir, in the bohemian neighborhood of Montmartre, the first cabaret German politician was born in 1901 in Munich with the company Die Elf Scharfrichter (The Eleven Executioners).

The German cabaret was famous for its political satire. Munich and Berlin competed to be the capital of the cabaret, which enjoyed its golden age in the 1920s and early 1930s, during the Weimar Republic, with clubs such as Max Reinhardt's Schall und Rauch and Trude Hesterberg's Wilde Bühne, both in Berlin. Writers Kurt Tucholsky, Erich Kästner, and Bertolt Brecht are still considered icons of the genre.

The film Cabaret (1972), starring Liza Minnelli, depicts the atmosphere in interwar Berlin, where creativity, satire, provocation, and political criticism flourished, but where the unstoppable rise of Nazism was already witnessing.

With the rise of dictator Adolf Hitler to power, there was no longer room for political satire in Germany. Many authors and cabaret artists went into exile. Other cabaret artists, many of them Jewish, fell victim to the Nazis.

Erika and Klaus Mann, children of the German novelist Thomas Mann, founded a cabaret in Munich called Die Pfeffermühle (The Peppermill) in 1933. This anti-fascist cabaret was forced to close and reopened in 1936 in Zurich, Switzerland, where it became a meeting point for German exiles.

The capitulation of Nazism and the Allied victory marked the rebirth of the cabaret Political satire, with greater force than ever, in West Germany. Even in communist Germany, this genre was seen as a safety valve in the era of Erich Honecker.

The new challenges of German political satire

He cabaret The political theme did not die with the arrival of television, where renowned cabaret artists often performed, nor after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but continued to reinvent itself in response to current political events.

Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, the cabaret Political satire lives on in Berlin, in venues like Die Stachelschweine, the oldest political cabaret in the German capital; Die Wühlmäuse; the BKA Theater; and the Distel cabaret-theater.

Doleys acknowledges that it's harder to create political satire now than it used to be, because the windows of opinion "are narrowing a bit." This cabaret artist, however, considers themselves fortunate to live in a time when, unlike many of their predecessors, the only thing they risk when they go on stage is receiving "a bad review on Google." Life is still a (political) cabaret in Berlin, as Liza Minnelli sang.