Carnival in the Third Reich. Someone enters the stage. It is the popular Karl Küpper. The Nazis have banned him from speaking – preferably he should disappear completely, the Gestapo henchmen are already standing by. But the jester refuses to give up: he sits down on stage, raises his arm in the obligatory Hitler salute and then just says: ‘Is it rainin’?…’ He clenches his hand into a fist, the Communist salute: ‘Man, we’re really havin’ such bad weather!’ This is an unprecedented provocation against the Nazis. Küpper firmly resists all attempts of suppression. Even after the war, his criticism remains unwelcome: Adenauer, the first chancellor of the Federal Republic, pressures the carnival societies to stop booking him. As a result, Küpper was denied recognition for his civil courage for all of his life.
Küpper’s story is now coming to the stage with an ensemble of actors and Cologne citizens. Küpper is played by a Cologne legend: the singer and actor Gerd Köster.
Theatre director Stefan Herrmann, known for productions such as DRUGLAND at Cologne Neumarkt and winner of the Monica Bleibtreu Prize, is staging the life of the jester for the Volksbühne, Cologne’s most traditional theatre, which was shut down by the Nazis during Hitler’s rule because of its commitment to culture without censorship. The author Tilman Strasser, honoured with the Dieter Wellershoff Scholarship of the City of Cologne, wrote the play especially for this production.
Küpper’s fate is accompanied by stories of Cologne citizens who are engaged in carnival and use this tradition to poke fun at the powerful. Based on Küpper’s life, the play deals with the big question: How far are you willing to go in the name of freedom of speech?
