Kolibri (cabaret)

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The Kolibri was a cabaret that existed in Cologne from 1930 to 1933 .

history

The beginnings

Postcard showing the Alte Posthof (left), the venue for the Kolibri cabaret , and the Cologne theater (1908)

On March 3, 1930, the journalist Leo Fritz Gruber announced in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger the premiere of the political-literary cabaret Kolibri for March 8 in the Alter Posthof restaurant . The name of the cabaret was derived from the hummingbird bird . In an article in the in-house magazine der neue westen , a poem by Magnus Gottfried Lichtwer (1719–1783) was published about a hummingbird, the last two sentences of which were intended to characterize the cabaret: “It says both people and cattle: The smallest makes the greatest noise (sic) ". Before each performance, a hummingbird figure was carried onto the stage, and a hummingbird logo adorned programs and advertisements.

The group was founded by the actor Otto Sander and the dramaturge Martin Dey. Sander referred to the model of the Elf Scharfrichter , a political cabaret in Munich, and thus to a "high standard" as well as to "musical quality" and topicality, based on a democratic and pacifist attitude. In contrast to the individual executioners , the "hummingbirds" saw themselves as a collective, which was expressed in uniform clothing in the form of a black mechanic's suit, which should be understood as proletarian work clothing. The cabaret artists 'favorite spot was the Kleine Glocke artists' pub, which still exists in Cologne today and was located across from the more middle-class Posthof . Sander wrote lyrics, Dey was the artistic director, but was on stage just like Sander. In addition to a fixed group of initially eight members (the majority of them from Cologne and social-democratic or communist-minded), including two women, guests also appeared. The stage was intended as a “living newspaper” on which current topics were taken up in the form of satire, parody or accusations. Over the years, the regular line-up changed, there were divisions and new foundations.

The venue was the Alte Posthof (formerly Em ahle Poßhoff ), Kreuzgasse / Glockengasse in downtown Cologne, opposite the theater ; In the hall of the restaurant there was a stage and space for 100 spectators. The premiere program was entitled “From Wedekind to Tucholsky” and consisted mainly of texts and poems by these authors. It was very well received, and after the first two weeks the cabaret was able to advertise "sold out daily". The premiere program was followed by six other programs by July, with texts by Wedekind and Tucholsky as well as by Erich Kästner , Walter Mehring and Christian Morgenstern , among others . Modern dance was also shown, in which time-critical topics were taken up. At the end of each performance, the ensemble performed the "hummingbird song". The high-speed draftsman Fritz Levysohn was particularly popular with the public. He was able to draw Hitler from a “0” with just a few strokes in no time at all and shone as an announcer with a “revolver's nose”. Although he left the ensemble after the first season to open an agency for advertising graphics, he continued to appear as a guest. During this season the “Kolibristen” counted a total of 28,000 spectators with around 300 performances.

In the second season of 1930/31, the proportion of self-written texts increased, mainly by Dey, Sander and Levysohn. However, Martin Dey withdrew from the ensemble when the landlord of the Alte Posthof asked for the texts to be defused. The political acts of the cabaret were directed primarily against the threat posed by the NSDAP and other right-wing forces. But politics and culture in Cologne were also an issue: there were skits such as “Schützenfest in Kalk” or “The lazy strychnine sensation in the Cologne harbor”, the content of which has not been passed down. During the “Examination for Young Carnivalists”, kölsch clique and “the simple- mindedness, disguised as tradition, of highly praised hand-made speakers were exposed”. The city's theater policy, which had worn out five acting directors between 1924 and 1930, was also the subject of satire and polemics. The Diseuse Grete Roese-Reinhardt scoffed at the beauty craze of women and the ideals of the cosmetics industry that were forced upon them.

Political attacks

On October 3, 1930, the cabaret artists parodied a scene between Hitler and Hugenberg when a spectator jumped onto the stage and attacked the two men on the stage. Sander threw himself in between and was injured. At the same time, around 20 men in the auditorium - SA men, as it turned out later - rose and a fight broke out. The police summoned to ensure order, one of the SA men was arrested and the performance continued, and that night there were further riots directed against the cabaret on the street in front of the Posthof . The evening before, 30 to 40 young men had tried unsuccessfully to storm the cabaret. The NSDAP own newspaper West German observers defended the attacks on the cabaret: "In the meanest, dirtiest way accosted everything in this Jewish lubricating piece, which is every German high and holy." The Rheinische Zeitung , however, wrote: "The Kolibristen have as radical Republicans have the right and duty to fight the enemies of the state. [...] We must support them, despite all philistines and cowards. "

The attack by the SA was the reason that the ensemble split before the beginning of the 1931/32 season. Willy Schulte, the landlord of the Alte Posthof , tried to censor the program for fear of further attacks and finally threatened to dismiss and call in the political police . Finally Schulte canceled the lease with Sander, who then left the ensemble and founded a new cabaret, the Ur-Kolibri . Several members of the ensemble followed him, new ones joined, and the poet Wilhelm Kweksilber recited his poems as a guest . Sander invited members of the League for Human Rights and the German Peace Society to the premiere of the new season . The original hummingbird only lasted three and a half months and attracted around 8,000 spectators during this time. There were legal disputes over the name, so that the Kolibri troop from the Posthof finally renamed themselves in slow motion . After further hostility from political opponents, other hummingbirds around Kurt Juster left the Alte Posthof and again founded the time cabaret . Martin Dey reconciled with Otto Sander, and Slow Motion and Kolibri reunited and operated sometimes under one name, sometimes under the other. But it was now the general economic decline - the number of visitors had been falling since 1932 - that threatened the existence of cabaret.

After an eight-month break, slow motion opened its fourth season on January 5, 1933, again in the Alter Posthof . The cabaret, now without Sander and Dey under the direction of Hans Sommer, was less political than literary. They even advertised in the NS-affiliated West German Observer . The last appearance took place on February 24th. Afterwards, for unknown reasons, there was a sudden change of tenant in the restaurant, which was renamed Haus Neu-Deutschland , the “new restaurant of the national German”. This change of tenant apparently came as a surprise to the previous landlord and the cabaret ensemble; Then the slow motion dissolved. Jürgen Müller writes: “The 'synchronization' in the entertainment and amusement industry had begun. The Alte Posthof and the slow motion were among the first victims of this policy in Cologne. "

New beginning after the war

After the end of the Nazi era and the war, Otto Sander tried a new beginning in 1954 with the Kolibri cabaret, together with Grete Roese-Reinhardt in the management and young people, including Ruth Boltersdorf and Hermann Moers . Sander wrote the lyrics, but didn't want to perform anymore himself. At the premiere on March 25th, he could no longer be present because he was seriously ill. He died in early July 1954. Without him as an artistic and organizational head, the Kolibri ceased operations after a few weeks.

Ensemble members (selection)

  • Ernest Berk (1909–1993) came from a family of architects in Cologne; he had English citizenship through his father. At the Cologne Wigman School of Chinita Ullmann he trained as a dancer and choreographer. In October 1931 he took over the dance direction in the Kolibri and performed together with Lotte Heymansohn, whom he married in 1933. In July 1934, the Jewish Berk emigrated to England with his wife and daughter, where he founded the “Modern Dance Group”. He also composed electronic music. The couple separated in the 1950s, and Berk married twice more. In 1985 he was appointed to the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin to teach the new subject musical . He died there on September 30, 1993 at the age of 83.
  • Leo Fritz Gruber (1908–2005), journalist, was a member of the Kolibri's Circle of Friends .
  • Lotte Berk , née Heymansohn (1913–2003), dancer, wife of Ernest Berk, was born into a middle-class family in Cologne. Her father ran several men's fashion stores in Cologne. Like her future husband, she studied dance with Chinita Ullmann. In 1934 the family emigrated to London . In 1959 she opened an institute for body training in London and developed a movement method for pop music named after her . She died on November 4, 2003 at the age of 90.
  • Kurt Juster (1908–1992), actor
  • Fritz Levysohn (1908–1969), draftsman, studied at the Cologne factory schools and ran an agency for commercial and commercial graphics. After 1933 he emigrated to the USA, where he took the name Frank Laurens and became a successful entrepreneur and art collector.
  • Heinz Lohmar (1900–1976), draftsman
  • Grete Roese-Reinhardt (1906–1982), actress and cabaret artist, had numerous engagements as an actress from 1924 to 1930 at municipal and touring theaters. From 1930 she worked as a spokesperson for West German Broadcasting . In 1934 she was banned from broadcasting because of her membership in the KPD and took over her mother's lingerie business. From 1945 she worked at the Cologne Theater and was involved with the KPD, and she also sat as a representative of her party in the subcommittee of the Cologne University of Music . After an internal party conflict over her husband, she left the party. In 1954 she was involved in the founding of the Kolibri . She died in Cologne in 1982. Her estate is in the Theater Studies Collection of the University of Cologne .

literature

  • Martin Köhler: Then come together, make music, sing and be happy: Ernest Berk's electronic music; a musician's estate in the historical archive of the city of Cologne . Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2006, ISBN 978-3-631-55560-6 .
  • Jürgen Müller: The cabaret Kolibri 1930-1933 in Cologne . Ed .: Cologne Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation . Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-9810334-0-X .
  • Jürgen Müller: "Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome ...": political review - cabaret - vaudeville in Cologne, 1928–1938 . Emons, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89705-549-0 , pp. 140-217 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 18.
  2. ↑ a b Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 15.
  3. ^ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 16.
  4. ^ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 19.
  5. ^ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 14.
  6. ^ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 20.
  7. ^ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 22.
  8. ↑ a b Müller: "Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome ..." , p. 147.
  9. ^ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 31.
  10. ↑ Müller: "Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome ..." , p. 149.
  11. ↑ Müller: "Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome ..." , p. 157.
  12. ↑ Müller: "Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome ..." , p. 161.
  13. ↑ Müller: "Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome ..." , p. 160.
  14. ↑ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 39 f.
  15. ↑ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 47 f.
  16. ↑ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 48.
  17. ↑ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 49.
  18. ↑ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 54 f.
  19. ^ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 62.
  20. ↑ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 62 f.
  21. ↑ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 64 f.
  22. ^ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 69 f.
  23. ↑ Müller: Das Kabarett Kolibri , p. 77 f.
  24. ^ Albrecht Riethmüller: Deutsche Leitkultur Musik ?. Franz Steiner, 2006, ISBN 978-3-515-08974-6 , p. 66.
  25. ↑ Entry 2: Sorting by person's name. TWS, University of Cologne, September 1, 2017, accessed on August 31, 2018.