The K 2000

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The K 2000 is a sketch by the German humorist Loriot . In it, an entrepreneur is interviewed whoproducesthe eponymous nuclear shelter .

The sketch was created in 1980 for the SWF political magazine Report , in which it was broadcast in July 1980 or September 1981. In 1997 he was included in the recut version of the Loriot series. The text of the sketch appeared in print for the first time in 1981 and has since been included in several other anthologies by Loriot.

plot

A reporter named Bergner crouches with Dr. Rosenheim in a concrete bunker, the internal dimensions of which are around 80 centimeters in height, width and depth. As Bergner reports to the viewer, the construction of air raid shelters is booming again. The two-seater compact shelter K 2000, in which they sit and which is produced by Rosenheim's company, was the best seller at the Hanover Fair . In an interview, Rosenheim praises the advantages of the K 2000. The “space-saving compact design” meets the demands of modern customers. As a result, the bunker can withstand “practically unlimited” loads; a direct nuclear hit would only push it into an orbit close to the earth, from which it would return to earth without burning up and with a “sporty” landing. In the time until the surroundings are free of radiation, which could last up to 2000 years, the customer would then have his own little realm with his bunker. A daily ration of food that "circulates" is sufficient. At the moment the K 2000 costs as much as a dishwasher . One hopes, however, that further crises will increase demand and thereby make the price even more “consumer-friendly”. When Bergner asked what would happen if the political situation eased, Rosenheim replied: “Well, we don't want to expect the worst right away…” Bergner thanks for the interview.

Production and publication

Loriot and Evelyn Hamann during a reading from Loriot's dramatic works in the early 1980s

Loriot had his successful 1978 series Loriot ended after six episodes and planned to retire for the time being from the active television work. In 1980, in the year of the federal election , Franz Alt , editor and presenter of the political magazine Report , had the idea to end every program with a sketch by Loriot. Loriot was convinced by SWF television director Felix Schmidt to work for Report . Initially, six skits were planned to show marriage conversations about politics. A total of eight skits were then broadcast, of which only two were marriage conversations. The skits were shot in Baden-Baden . With one exception, only Loriot and Evelyn Hamann appeared in them . In Der K 2000 , Loriot plays Dr. Rosenheim, Evelyn Hamann can be seen as a reporter Bergner.

There are various details about the first broadcast of the sketch. In his directory of Loriot's works, the Germanist Stefan Neumann mentions the Report broadcast of July 8, 1980, which would make Der K 2000 the sixth sketch broadcast in Report . Alternatively, in an exhibition catalog from 2009 and on the website loriot.de operated by Loriot's community of heirs, September 8, 1981 is given as the broadcast date. That would have aired the sketch a year after the last of the other seven skits.

In November 1983, the sketch was also shown on the show Loriot's 60th birthday . When Loriot re-edited his series Loriot in 1997 , he also included skits from other programs, including Der K 2000 . The sketch is part of the ninth episode entitled A Menu with English Tongue, Veal Knuckle, Bathtub and Politics , which was shown on June 17, 1997 in First .

The text of Der K 2000 first appeared in print in 1981 in the anthology Loriot's dramatic works . It is assigned to the science, technology and transport chapter . Since then it has been included in a few other anthologies by Loriot.

Analysis and classification

The Sketch The K 2000 parodies business practices that are purely profit-oriented and want to make a profit even from catastrophic situations. This is particularly clear from the final point in which the entrepreneur classifies an actually positive development - the relaxation of the political world situation - as bad because it is bad for his business. But the reporter also contradicted general moral ideas right from the start when she rated the sales success of air raid shelters, which speaks for an expected war situation, as good news.

Like the other skits created for Report , Der K 2000 is closely related to time. At the time of its inception, the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the context of the Cold War was an important issue. The NATO double decision of December 1979 had led to a high point in the new peace movement. Loriot clarifies the dangers of nuclear war and the futility of nuclear bunkers with Rosenheim's statement that it could take up to 2000 years for the area to be free of radiation. According to the German scholar Stefan Neumann, the sketch takes up the pessimism that Loriot had already indicated in the Christmas sketch in the last episode of Loriot .

In his works, Loriot repeatedly parodied the language patterns he called catalog language, which are used to describe goods, especially in mail order catalogs . The names of special color nuances that also appear in Der K 2000 are typical of these parodies . The bunker is offered in different colors. On the one hand, it comes in the camouflage colors Russian green, reed and eggshell. Loriot had already used the color Russian green in the 1978 Sketch sales representative visit. There it was a possible color of the Heinzelmann suction blower, whose real model, the Kobold vacuum cleaner from Vorwerk , was available in "nato green". The contrast between “ NATO ” and “Russian” is interpreted by the German scholar Felix Christian Reuter, who did his doctorate on Loriot's TV sketches, as a reference to the Cold War. In addition to the camouflage colors, the bunker is offered in the color mauve , which Rosenheim has to explain as "pale purple". Since the word comes from French , it sounds strange and elegant. According to Reuter, this veils the threatening situation for which the bunker stands and instead connects the bunker with ideas of individuality and exoticism. The other statements made by Rosenheim also used the cliché that advertising is less about the practical use of the product and more about conveying values ​​and feelings that encourage customers to buy. For example, Rosenheim emphasized the private life in the bunker, the global political contexts are ignored. In addition, the actually negative narrowness of the bunker is reinterpreted as something positive with the phrase “space-saving compact design”. The term comes from the real advertising language and is used, for example, in automobile advertising.

Audio-visual media

  • Loriot - His large sketch archive. Warner Home Video, Hamburg 2001, DVD No. 3 (as part of Loriot 9 ).
  • Loriot - The complete television edition. Warner Home Video, Hamburg 2007, DVD No. 2.

Text publications (selection)

literature

  • Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. Life, work and work of Vicco von Bülow . Scientific publishing house Trier, Trier 2011, ISBN 978-3-86821-298-3 .
  • Felix Christian Reuter: Chaos, comedy, cooperation. Loriot's television sketches (=  Oliver Jahraus , Stefan Neuhaus [Hrsg.]: FILM - MEDIA - DISCOURSE . Volume 70 ). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-8260-5898-1 (also dissertation at the University of Trier 2015).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The dimensions of the bunker can be found in the stage directions of the published sketch text.
  2. ↑ a b Stefan Lukschy : The lucky one doesn't hit dogs. A Loriot portrait . 2nd Edition. Structure, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-351-03540-2 , p. 126-127 .
  3. ^ Six report broadcasts in Baden-Baden with Vicco von Bülow and Evelyn Hamann . In: Südwestfunk information . No. February 12 , 1980. Quoted in: Stefan Neumann: Loriot und die Hochkomik. 2011, p. 299 and in: Dieter Lobenbrett: Loriot. Biography . Riva, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-86883-267-9 , pp. 149 .
  4. ↑ Dieter Lobenbrett: Loriot. Biography . Riva, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-86883-267-9 , pp. 149 .
  5. ↑ In the sketch election poster , next to Loriot and Hamann, an extra can be seen as Mr. Froebel.
  6. ↑ a b Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 410.
  7. ↑ Peter Paul Kubitz, Gerlinde Waz (ed.): Loriot. What! Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7757-2367-1 , p. 168 . The K 2000. In: loriot.de. Retrieved April 4, 2021 .
  8. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, p. 416.
  9. ^ Felix Christian Reuter: Chaos, comedy, cooperation. 2016, p. 58.
  10. ^ Felix Christian Reuter: Chaos, comedy, cooperation. 2016, p. 58.
  11. ^ Felix Christian Reuter: Chaos, comedy, cooperation. 2016, p. 234.
  12. ^ Felix Christian Reuter: Chaos, comedy, cooperation. 2016, pp. 59, 198.
  13. ↑ Stefan Neumann: Loriot and the high comedy. 2011, pp. 300-301.
  14. ^ Felix Christian Reuter: Chaos, comedy, cooperation. 2016, pp. 53–56.
  15. ^ Felix Christian Reuter: Chaos, comedy, cooperation. 2016, pp. 58–60.