Carow's Laughing Stage

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Erich Carow on his “Lachbühne”, 1936
Photo: Willy Pragher

Carow's Lachbühne was a cabaret in the Berlin district of Mitte that existed from 1927 to 1943.

History of the Lachbühne

In the former tunnel of the Walhalla Theater at Weinbergsweg 19 , Erich Carow opened his Lachbühne in 1927 , a popular theater for grotesques and one-act plays in which he also appeared himself.

Carow was born in 1894 and already had to earn some money as a child by doing Schrippen and working as a child clown . He learned his musical craft at the Stadtpfeiferei in Zahna . Then he played in the band of a traveling circus, where he had to perform as a clown again. Carow's wife Luzie, née Blattner, was a soubrette at the Walhalla Theater when he married her in 1923.

Carow knew how to parody guys like those from the Zille milieu so aptly that he was soon called the Chaplin of the Weinbergsweg . In addition to Carow, Fredy Sieg also presented Berlin gentlemen in his couplets , who “dressed with bowler hats and gaiters on Sunday” had all sorts of funny things to report from everyday suburban life. There were also variety shows, artists and magicians.

The Lachbühne was a popular bar with a low entrance fee (60 Reichspfennige, one mark on Sundays), where factory workers and greengrocers, shop girls and the porters, but also the innkeeper next door could sit together and laugh heartily. Carow's folk cabaret not only attracted the little people, who could recognize their worries and needs there; The regulars in the “folk vaudeville in the north” ( Heinrich Mann ) also included writers and actors: Heinrich Mann as well as Kurt Tucholsky , Max Pallenberg and Henny Porten . The film star Charlie Chaplin was there on March 9, 1931 as a surprise guest on the stage. Kurt Tucholsky reported in a few essays, such as in the Weltbühne, of the impressions he received there:

“And let an infernally long program endure us: tap dancers; a very good acrobat group; an unspeakable melodrama, in the extensive leading role the same woman director; a critic that the audience cheers about ... The audience is happy about everything, especially the women, for whom the anal humor adequately represents everyone else. "

- Kurt Tucholsky

On the evening of February 27, 1933, Carow celebrated his 20th anniversary as a comedian with an extensive festival program. Numerous well-wishers cavorted on the stage and in the auditorium of the theater. During the current program, the news made the rounds that the Reichstag building just a few kilometers away was on fire . "In honor of the jubilee, the Reichstag even illuminated," said cabaret artist Werner Finck , as journalist Pem later recalled. Pem and a few others present were among those who were forced to flee abroad in the weeks and months that followed.

The Lachbühne was bombed out in 1943. After the Second World War, Erich Carow took over the excursion restaurant Haus Gatow am See in Berlin-Gatow in 1955 , which had moved into the buildings of the former Lehnschulzengut in 1932, built a new garden hall and now called it a new place after his cabaret Carows Lachbühne there should find house 'Carow' by the lake .

Erich Carow died on August 31, 1956; In the mid-1970s, all the buildings in the Lehnschulzengut and the restaurant were demolished.

literature

Web links

Commons : Carows Lachbühne  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Weinbergsweg 19 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1932, IV, p. 930.
  2. ↑ cf. Brunnenstrasse. The "Walhalla Varieté-Theater" continued to exist, it was expanded and finally held 1550 people. In the adjoining tunnel, Erich Carow opened Carow's Lachbühne in 1927 , which existed until it was destroyed in World War II.
  3. ^ Illustration of Carow in a clown mask
  4. ↑ Bemman: Memoirs , p 110
  5. ↑ Bemmann: Memoirs , p. 112.
  6. ↑ Bemmann: Memoirs , p. 115, also 117.
  7. ^ Wolfgang Gersch: Chaplin in Berlin . Henschelverlag, Berlin 1988
  8. ↑ z. B. in Die Weltbühne , December 24, 1929, No. 52, p. 945, Texts of the Recruit , cf. Textlog and John Heartfield : Volksbuch 1930 , Textlog
  9. ^ Criticism from memory . In: Collected Works , Volume 7. Reinbek, Rowohlt 1975, pp. 279 ff.
  10. ↑ to the following. see. Thomas Willimowski: “Being an emigrant is not a job.” The life of the journalist Pem . Berlin, wvb 2007, p. 62 f.
  11. ↑ Alt-Gatow 57/59 Heading into Spandau
  12. ↑ See Haila Ochs: Project Gatow

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '52.7 "  N , 13 ° 24' 8.3"  E