Stephan Wald

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Stephan Wald (born April 14, 1951 in Gau-Algesheim ) is a German cabaret artist , actor and voice imitator who gained fame primarily through the imitation of Helmut Kohl .

Life

Youth and education

Stephan Wald attended the Stefan-George-Gymnasium in Bingen , where he graduated from high school in 1970. His plan to begin studying theology to become a pastor , he gave up in favor of an acting training. He subsequently refused to do his military service . He then did his community service in the Bad Dürkheim hospital , where he was employed in nursing for 15 months . Dealing with seriously ill and dying people rekindled in him the desire to become a priest. Therefore, he began studying Catholic theology at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz . However, he broke this off after two semesters to become an actor.

Wald received his training at the Hamburg University of Music and Performing Arts , which he graduated with a diploma after studying drama for three years. He then worked for two years at the Stadttheater Luzern and for three years at the Stadttheater Koblenz . He later received the offer to join the ensemble of the Hamburg cabaret Das Schiff , where he stayed until 1983. In Hamburg he also had guest roles at the Kammerspiele and at the Ernst Deutsch Theater . There he played the role of Hämon in the play "Antigone" alongside Angélique Duvier, directed by Eberhard Möbius.

Cabaret career

During his time with the Schiff Ensemble, he was best known as the Helmut Kohl Parodist. In 1984 the freelance journalist Günter Walter hired him for the record project I am Kohl, my heart is pure - The record for the turnaround , to imitate the voice of the Chancellor. Other contributors were Thomas Freitag (as Franz Josef Strauss and Ernst Dieter Lueg ) and Elke Heidenreich . This first satirical record about Federal Chancellor Kohl was followed by numerous radio and television appearances by the cabaret artist. Wald was hailed as an excellent parodist.

In the role of Kohl, Wald caused a number of entanglements. After a satirical contribution with reference to the so-called Bitburg controversy in the May Revue broadcast on May 1, 1985 on ARD , in which Wald parodied Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Ron Williams US President Ronald Reagan , the black and yellow federal government demanded an apology from WDR , which produced the show. Many spectators also protested. The satire by Wald und Williams appeared on a single almost two weeks later, but the WDR has kept the original version under lock and key ever since.

Shortly thereafter, the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Defense Ministry, Peter Kurt Würzbach , complained about Wald's appearance at the officers' ball of the Armed Forces Office on May 31, 1985 with the Deputy Inspector General Horst Jungkurth . The head of office as head of a Bundeswehr agency had allowed this social event with international guests to be used to politicize the Bundeswehr through Wald's parodies. Würzbach saw a violation of the duty of loyalty to the employer in peacetime and in the case of defense, since he had tolerated public polemics against him.

At the beginning of January 1985, ZDF had already unloaded Stephan Wald a few days before the show Menschen '84 , because the station's managers found the Kohl parody included in an entertainment program to be too "one-sided". Something similar happened to Wald ten years later in 1995 on the occasion of the ZDF gala on Inge Meysel's 85th birthday, when a production manager urged him to forego the planned Kohl parody.

The personalities that Wald imitated alongside Kohl include Norbert Blüm , Marcel Reich-Ranicki , Alfred Biolek , Regine Hildebrandt , Karl Lagerfeld , Helmut Schmidt , Joschka Fischer , Rudolf Scharping , Johannes Rau , Antje Vollmer , Boris Becker , Inge Meysel , Heinz Rühmann , Ernst Dieter Lueg , Michael Mittermeier , Roman Herzog , Dieter Thomas Heck , Willy Brandt , Hans-Dietrich Genscher , Guido Westerwelle , Gerhard Schröder , Edmund Stoiber , Erich Böhme , Harald Schmidt , Verona Feldbusch , Peter Alexander and Heinz Schenk . Against this background he once answered the question “Who cannot be parodied?” With “ God . And Richard von Weizsäcker . "

In the autumn of 1986, encouraged by his first record successes - including Schwarzwortklinik (1985) - and not least by Gert Fröbe , he went on tour with his first solo program Hungergala . This was followed by Öko-SAT (1989, also as a TV show with Wald, Ingolf Lück and Hans Werner Olm ), Schizofritz (1993) and Nanga Parbat (1996) - the latter title is a deliberate allusion to the “Germans' mountain of fate” . For these programs, most of which were also released on recordings, Wald worked with the authors Diether Dehm and Erich Virch . He also played a minor role in Walter Bockmayer's home film parody Die Geierwally (1988). In the satire show Hurray Germany from 1989 to 1991, together with Thomas Freitag, he gave the voices to celebrities from politics and entertainment who were parodied in the form of rubber dolls.

Stephan Wald supported the development aid projects of the aid organization HANDinHAND eV in India, founded by Pastor Elmar Jung, several times through appearances with his satire programs in which he waived his fee . Both have known each other since studying together in Mainz, where they lived together for a while in the local seminary.

With the end of the Kohl era and the beginning of Gerhard Schröder's chancellorship in 1998, Wald lost the most important figure in his parody numbers. The cabaret artist took a two year creative break. In autumn 2000 he returned with his new solo program Zombieland . In this all-round attack against the excesses of the fun society , with which he went on tour nationwide, Helmut Kohl was, however, "prohibited from performing". In 2003, Wald withdrew from the stage in order to only live as a private person . For the gala of Zeit on the occasion of the 90th birthday of former Federal Chancellor and publisher Helmut Schmidt, Stephan Wald returned at the beginning of 2009 after a five-year absence from the stage especially for this evening to talk to Zeit's editor-in-chief Giovanni di Lorenzo about the talks in Zeit magazine “Auf eine Cigarette with Helmut Schmidt ” to satirize.

Wald always saw himself more as a cabaret artist in the style of Werner Finck and rejected the comedy wave that increasingly emerged around the turn of the millennium : "As a cabaret artist, you make demands on the intellect - a comedian is much more successful."

Private

Stephan Wald has publicly acknowledged his homosexuality several times . On the other hand, he also stated that he was very unhappy in love with a classmate while studying acting in Hamburg.

Quote

“If the pastor's pulpit and the cabaret artist's stage have one thing in common, then it is surely this: the description of the world as a preliminary one. For example, the division of the human family into rich drinkers and poor drinkers cannot endure. However, for a long time I no longer have the illusion that I can improve the world with cabaret. It's enough for me if the other person looks a little more alert than before. "

- Stephan Wald, 2002

plant

Programs

  • 1986: Hunger Gala - where is the music? (Book: Virch, Dehm, Wald)
  • 1989: Öko-SAT (book: Virch, Dehm, Wald)
  • 1993: Schizofritz (book: Virch, Wald)
  • 1996: Nanga Parbat
  • 2000: Zombieland (book: Virch)

Sound carrier

  • 1984: I am Kohl, my heart is pure - Die Platte zur Wende ( LP , Rillenschlange / KliG)
  • 1985: Helmut: "Du, du, du", Ronnie: "Yes, I agree" and Under 4 Eyes ( single , CBS )
  • 1985: Schwarzwort Clinic (LP / MC , Rillenschlange)
  • 1986: Hunger Gala - where is the music? (LP, plans, CBS)
  • 1986: Boris Becker Talk with Harry Valerien (Single, CBS)
  • 1992: Hetzparade ( CD , Sony )
  • 1992: The Buttocks ( Maxi , Columbia )
  • 1993: I dance alone (Maxi)
  • 1994: It's not bad (Maxi)
  • 1998: Nanga Parbat (CD, WortArt)
  • 1998: Adé (Maxi, WortArt)

Filmography

literature

  • Bernadette Heim: Between artist and chancellor: Stephan Wald . In: Initiative No. 3/1998, p. 15

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c biography ( memento from April 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on the alumni pages of the Stefan-George-Gymnasium Bingen
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Biography ( memento from April 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Wald im Interview
  3. ↑ Almut Behl: The federal government doesn't think. At least not in larger contexts, claims the cabaret artist Stefan Wald . In: Die Welt from October 21, 2000; Online version, accessed January 15, 2011
  4. ↑ From below. The cabaret artist Stephan Wald parodies not only the chancellor's voluminous speech. He also masters Kohl's body language . In: Der Spiegel . No. 7 , 1985, pp. 195 ( Online - Feb. 11, 1985 ).
  5. ↑ Se squatsch. Cabaret artists have released the first satire record on the Chancellor . In: Der Spiegel . No. 46 , 1984, pp. 58-59 ( Online - Nov. 12, 1984 ).
  6. ↑ -sh-: Moldy cabaret: Stephan Wald haunts "Zombieland" . In: Die Welt from May 15, 2001; Online version, accessed January 14, 2011
  7. ↑ Moving moment. A Cologne “May Revue” parodied Kohl and Reagan until they were recognizable - the federal government demands an official apology from ARD . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 1985, pp. 212-213 ( Online - May 6, 1985 ).
  8. ^ Gunter Hofmann : Bonner Bühne: What is allowed to satire? . In: Die Zeit No. 20/1985 of May 10, 1985 ( online version )
  9. ↑ Satire violates duty of loyalty. State Secretary Würzbach's complaint about Chancellor actor Wald . In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 1985, pp. 75 ( Online - July 15, 1985 ).
  10. ↑ Personal details : Stephan Wald . In: Der Spiegel . No. 2 , 1985, pp. 154 ( online - Jan. 7, 1985 ).
  11. ↑ Better with flowers. ZDF celebrates Inge Meysel as a courageous TV mother with a gala. Behind the scenes there was a row about a satirical sketch . In: Der Spiegel . No. 23 , 1995, pp. 204 ( online - June 5, 1995 ).
  12. ↑ a b Interview with Stephan Wald by Carlo Kirchner at the Scala artist agency ( Memento from May 27, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ A seriously ill Indian boy received a new [...?] From Langen. Stephan Wald waived his fee, the city waived the hall rent . In: Offenbach-Post of September 20, 1990, quoted here from HANDinHAND eV  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved January 15, 2011@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.handinhand.info  
  14. ↑ Almut Kipp (dpa): “Time” gala moved the former chancellor to tears: Then a cigarette: Schmidt pays tribute to Schmidt ( Memento from September 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: Netzeitung from January 23, 2009; Retrieved January 14, 2011
  15. ↑ Stephan Wald in Zombieland (Erich Virch 2000), quoted here from Almut Behl: The Federal Government does not think. At least not in larger contexts, claims the cabaret artist Stefan Wald . In: Die Welt from October 21, 2000; Online version, accessed January 15, 2011
  16. ↑ cf. z. B. Master of the arrangement. Cabaret artist Stephan Wald on homosexuals in professional life . In Spiegel Special No. 8/1996, p. 101 ( online version ) and statements in his solo program Zombieland (2000)
personal data
SURNAME Forest, Stephan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cabaret artist, actor and voice imitator
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Gau-Algesheim