Karl Valentin (born Valentin Ludwig Fey, 4 June 1882 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

– 9 February 1948 in

Planegg Planegg is a municipality in the district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the river Würm, 13 km west of Munich (centre). Economy Koch Media has its head office in Planegg. It also hosts many biotech-companies, like ADVA ...

) was a

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

. He had significant influence on

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

. Valentin starred in many

silent films A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, whe ...

in the 1920s, and was sometimes called the "

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

". His work has an essential influence on artists like

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

Loriot Bernhard-Viktor Christoph-Carl von Bülow (12 November 1923 – 22 August 2011), known as Vicco von Bülow or Loriot (), was a German comedian, humorist, cartoonist, film director, actor and writer. He was best known for his cartoons, the s ...

and

Helge Schneider Helge Schneider (born 30 August 1955 in Mülheim an der Ruhr) is a German entertainer, comedian, musician, author, film and theatre director, and actor. He frequently appears on German television and is probably best known for his song "Katzeklo ...

Early work

Karl Valentin came from a reasonably well-off middle-class family; his father had a partnership in a furniture-transport business. Valentin first worked as a carpenter's apprentice, and this experience proved useful in the construction of his sets and props later in life. In 1902, he began his comic career, enrolling for three months at a variety school in Munich, under the guidance of

Hermann Strebel Hermann Wilhelm Strebel ( Hamburg, 1 January 1834 – Hamburg, 6 November 1914) was a merchant, ethnologue and a malacologist from Germany and Mexico. Biography He was born on 1 January 1834 in Hamburg as the youngest of four brothers. Through hi ...

. His first job as a performer was at the "Zeughaus" in Nürnberg (Nuremberg). In the wake of his father's death Valentin took a three-year break from performing during which he constructed his own twenty-piece

one-man band A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical or electronic contraptions. One-man bands also often sing while they perform. The simplest type of "one-man ban ...

(with which he eventually toured in 1906). Valentin also took musical studies, learning the guitar with

Heinrich Albert Heinrich Friedrich Albert (12 February 1874 to 1 November 1960) was a German civil servant, diplomat, politician, businessman and lawyer who served as minister for reconstruction and the Treasury in the government of Wilhelm Cuno in 1922/1923. ...

. Soon Valentin was performing regularly in the cabarets and beerhalls of München (

). He developed a reputation for writing and performing short comic routines, which he performed in a strong Bavarian dialect, usually with his female partner,

Liesl Karlstadt Liesl Karlstadt (; born Elisabeth Wellano, 12 December 1892 – 27 June 1960) was a German actress and cabaret performer. Alongside Karl Valentin, she set the tone for a generation of popular culture in Munich. She appeared in more than 70 f ...

. Valentin also made numerous films, both silent and with audio; but it was as a stage performer in cabarets that Valentin built a reputation as one of the leading comic performers in Germany during the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...

.Calandra (2003). He died in 1948 from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

With Bertolt Brecht

Karl Valentin by Eugen Rosenfeld (1870 - 1940)

In 1923, Valentin appeared in a half-hour, slapstick film entitled ''

Mysteries of a Barbershop ''Mysteries of a Barbershop'' (german: Mysterien eines Frisiersalons) is a comic, slapstick German film of 33 minutes, created by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Erich Engel, and starring the Munich cabaret clown Karl Valentin and leading stage ac ...

'' (''Mysterien eines Friseursalons''). The film script was written by

, directed by Erich Engel, and also featured Valentin's cabaret partner, Liesl Karlstadt, as well as an ensemble of stage, film, and cabaret performers, including

Max Schreck Friedrich Gustav Maximilian Schreck Eickhoff, Stefan. 2007 (6 September 1879 – 20 February 1936), Walk, Ines. 2006. known professionally as Max Schreck, was a German actor, best known for his lead role as the vampire Count Orlok in the film ' ...

Erwin Faber Erwin Faber (21 July 1891 – 4 May 1989) was a leading actor in Munich and later throughout Germany, beginning after World War I, and through the late-1970s, when he was still performing at the Residenz Theatre (The National Theatre of Bava ...

, Josef Eichheim, and Blandine Ebinger. Although the film was not immediately released after it was completed in February 1923, it has come to be recognized as one of the one hundred most important films in the history of German filmmaking. The previous year, 1922, Bertolt Brecht had appeared with Valentin and Karlstadt in a photo of Valentin's spoof of Munich's

Oktoberfest The Oktoberfest (; bar, Wiesn, Oktobafest) is the world's largest Volksfest, featuring a beer festival and a travelling carnival. It is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is a 16- to 18-day folk festival running from mid- or ...

.Brecht is shown participating in the Valentin sketch ''Oktoberfestschaubude'' (Octoberfest entertainment booth) in a photograph reproduced in Willett (1967, 145). Brecht regularly watched Valentin perform his cabaret routines in Munich's beerhalls, and compared him to

Chaplin Chaplin may refer to: People * Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), English comedy film actor and director * Chaplin (name), other people named Chaplin Films * '' Unknown Chaplin'' (1983) * ''Chaplin'' (film) (1992) * ''Chaplin'' (2011 film), Ben ...

, not least for his "virtually complete rejection of mimicry and cheap psychology."Quoted by Willett and Manheim (1970), p. 112, Brecht wrote: :But the man he

third person Third person, or third-person, may refer to: * Third person (grammar), a point of view (in English, ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', and ''they'') ** Illeism, the act of referring to oneself in the third person * Third-person narrative, a perspective in p ...

] learnt most from was the clown ''Valentin'', who performed in a beer-hall. He did short sketches in which he played refractory employees, orchestral musicians or photographers, who hated their employer and made him look ridiculous. The employer was played by his partner, a popular woman comedian who used to pad herself out and speak in a deep bass voice. When the

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

er rechtwas producing his first play, which included a thirty minutes' battle, he asked Valentin what he ought to do with the soldiers. 'What are the soldiers like in battle?' Valentin promptly answered: 'They're pale. Scared shitless.'Brecht (1965, 69-70). This anecdote has become significant in the history of German theatre, since it was Valentin's idea of applying chalk to the faces of Brecht's actors in his production of ''

Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...

'' that Brecht located the germ of his conception of '

epic theatre Epic theatre (german: episches Theater) is a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners who responded to the political climate of the time through the creati ...

'.Benjamin (1983, 115).

Performance style

Valentin's naïve sense of humour produced sketches that in spirit were loosely connected to

dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...

, social

expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

and the ''

Neue Sachlichkeit The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, who ...

''. Along with Karl Kraus, he is considered a master of

gallows humor Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

. His art centered mostly around linguistic dexterity and wordplay—Valentin was a linguistic

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

. His comedy would often begin with a simple misunderstanding, on which he would insist as the sketch progressed.Schechter (1994, 70-71). The notable

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

Alfred Kerr Alfred Kerr (''né'' Kempner; 25 December 1867 – 12 October 1948, surname: ) was an influential German theatre critic and essayist of Jewish descent, nicknamed the ''Kulturpapst'' ("Culture Pope"). Biography Youth Kerr was born in Breslau, ...

praised him as a ''Wortzerklauberer'', or someone who tears apart words and language to forcefully extract and dissect its inherent meaning. His sketches often parodied and derided "shopkeepers, firemen, military band players, professionals with small roles in the economy and the defence of society".Schechter (1994, 70). Many contemporary artists, including film-maker

Herbert Achternbusch Herbert Achternbusch ( Schild; 23 November 1938 – 10 January 2022) was a German film director, writer and painter. He began as a writer of avant-garde prose, such as the novel ''Die Alexanderschlacht'', before turning to low-budget films. He h ...

and

Christoph Schlingensief Christoph Maria Schlingensief (24 October 1960 – 21 August 2010) was a German theatre director, performance artist, and filmmaker. Starting as an independent underground filmmaker, Schlingensief later staged productions for theatres and festivals ...

("Valentin is one of the greatest for me!"), trace their artistic roots back to Karl Valentin.

Legacy

* In 1959 based on private initiative the ''Valentin-Museum'' was established in the

Isartor The Isartor at the Isartorplatz in Munich is one of four main gates of the medieval city wall. It served as a fortification for the defence and is the most easterly of Munich's three remaining gothic town gates (''Isartor'', '' Sendlinger Tor'' a ...

in Munich. This museum shows absurdities from parts of his legacy. * A statue of Valentin was placed in the

Viktualienmarkt The Viktualienmarkt is a daily food market and a square in the center of Munich, Germany. It has been held daily since 1807, except on Sundays and public holidays. The Viktualienmarkt developed from an original farmers' market to a popula ...

in Munich. People still come and place flowers on this statue. * 1986 Turkish musical play named " İçinden Tramvay Geçen Şarkı" ("The Song Through Which a Streetcar Passes") by Ferhan Şensoy is loosely based on life of Karl Valentin.

Available works

Films on DVD

* Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt: ''Die Kurzfilme'' (The Short Films, 3 DVDs), Munich 2002, Publisher Film101 * Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt: ''Die Spielfilme'' (The Feature Films, 3 DVDs), Munich 2004, Publisher Film101 * Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt: ''Die beliebtesten Kurzfilme'' (The most popular short films), Munich 2006, Publisher Film101 * Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt: ''Die Kurzfilme – Neuedition'' (The Short Films - new edition, 3 DVDs) Munich 2008, Publisher Film101

Complete Works

Complete Works in 8 volumes. Edited by Helmut Bach Maier and Manfred Faust. Munich: Piper. * Volume 1: ''Monologe und Soloszenen'' (monologues and solo scenes). 309 p. - * Vol 2: ''Couplets'', 424 p. * Vol 3: ''Szenen'' (scenes). 388 p., 1995. * Vol 4: ''Dialoge'' (dialogues). 485 p. - 1995. * Vol 5: ''Stücke'' (Pieces). 557 p. - 1997. – * Vol 6: ''Briefe'' (Letters). 379 p. - 1991. – * Vol 7: ''Autobiographisches und Vermischtes'' (Autobiographical and Miscellaneous). 400 p. 1996. * Vol 8: ''Filme und Filmprojekte'' (Films and film projects). 618 p. - 1995. * ''Dokumente, Nachträge, Register'' (Documents, amendments and register). 277 p. - 1997. –

Works cited

* Benjamin, Walter. 1983. ''Understanding Brecht''. Trans. Anna Bostock. London and New York: Verso. . * Brecht, Bertolt. 1965. '' The Messingkauf Dialogues''. Trans. John Willett. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry, Prose Ser. London: Methuen, 1985. . * Calandra, Denis. 2003. "Karl Valentin and Bertolt Brecht." In ''Popular Theatre: A Sourcebook''. Ed. Joel Schechter. Worlds of Performance Ser. London and New York: Routledge. p. 189-201. . * Horwitz, Kurt "Karl Valentin in einer anderen Zeit," ''Stürzflüge im Zuschauerraum'' (Munich, Piper Verlag, 1970), pp. 16–17 * McDowell, W. Stuart. 1977. "A Brecht-Valentin Production: ''Mysteries of a Barbershop''", in ''Performing Arts Journal'', Vol. 1, No. 3 (Winter, 1977), pp. 2–14. * McDowell, W. Stuart. 2000. “Acting Brecht: The Munich Years," in ''The Brecht Sourcebook'', Carol Martin, Henry Bial, editors (Routledge, 2000) p. 71 - 83. * Schechter, Joel. 1994. "Brecht's Clowns: ''Man is Man'' and After". In Thomson and Sacks (1994, 68-78). * Thomson, Peter and Glendyr Sacks, eds. 1994. ''The Cambridge Companion to Brecht''. Cambridge Companions to Literature Ser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . * Willett, John. 1967. ''The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects.'' Third rev. ed. London: Methuen, 1977. . * Willett, John and

Ralph Manheim Ralph Frederick Manheim (April 4, 1907 – September 26, 1992) was an American translator of German and French literature, as well as occasional works from Dutch, Polish and Hungarian. He was one of the most acclaimed translators of the 20th cent ...

. 1970. Introduction. In ''Collected Plays: One'' by Bertolt Brecht. Ed. John Willett and Ralph Manheim. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry and Prose Ser. London: Methuen. . p.vii-xvii.

References

External links

Karl Valentin Museum in Isartor, Munich

Official Karl Valentin Page (german)

You'll Laugh, You'll Cry
*
Film Comedy in the Weimar Republic
at www.filmportal.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Valentin, Karl German male stage actors German male comedians German cabaret performers 1882 births 1948 deaths People from the Kingdom of Bavaria German-language film directors German male silent film actors German male film actors Kabarettists Weimar cabaret 20th-century German male actors 20th-century comedians