Vicco von Bülow Loriot | |
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.jpg) Vicco von Bülow, 1971 | |
| Born | Bernhard-Viktor Christoph-Carl von Bülow (1923-11-12)12 November 1923 |
| Died | 22 August 2011(2011-08-22) (aged 87) |
| Known for | Ödipussi,Pappa Ante Portas |
| Signature | |
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Bernhard-Viktor Christoph-Carl von Bülow (12 November 1923 – 22 August 2011), known asVicco von Bülow orLoriot (German:[loˈʁi̯oː]ⓘ), was a German comedian,humorist,cartoonist, film director, actor and writer. As an artist, he was almost exclusively known under hispen name Loriot, which is the French term for the birdoriole depicted as acrest in thecoat of arms of theBülow family.
He was best known for hiscartoons, the sketches from his 1976 television seriesLoriot, alongsideEvelyn Hamann, and his two movies,Ödipussi (1988) andPappa Ante Portas (1991).
On the television seriesUnsere Besten (Our Best), Loriot was ranked the 54th best German ever. In a special comedy episode ofUnsere Besten, he was ranked as the most famous German comedian ever.
Vicco von Bülow was born inBrandenburg an der Havel inPrussia, todayBrandenburg, in modern north-eastern Germany. The vonBülow family belongs to German aristocracy. His parents, Johann-Albrecht Wilhelm von Bülow (1899–1972) and Charlotte (née von Roeder, 1899–1929), separated soon after he was born, and his mother died when he was six. Von Bülow and his brother grew up in Berlin with their grandmother.[1]
Von Bülow was still in school whenWorld War II started. After graduating early from secondary school, he followed the family's tradition and became a military officer. He was deployed to theEastern Front for three years, serving asOberleutnant ofPanzergrenadierregiment 3[1] in the3rd Panzer Division. He was decorated with theIron Cross 2nd class and 1st class. His younger brother,Johann-Albrecht Sigismund von Bülow, was killed on 21 March 1945, less than two months before the end of World War II. Asked during an interview later in his life if he had been a good soldier he answered: "Not good enough, otherwise I would have been part of the resistance on20 July 1944. But for the dreadful German contribution to world history, I will be ashamed for the rest of my life."[2]
Von Bülow completed hisAbitur in 1946. In 1951 he married Romi Schlumbom (born 1929), with whom he had two daughters.
Von Bülow's talent for drawing was eminent already during his school years. After the war he studied graphic design and painting at theLandeskunstschule in Hamburg. From 1950 onwards, he published cartoons under the pseudonym "Loriot", derived from the French word fororiole, his family's heraldic animal.[1]
In 1971, von Bülow created a cartoon dog namedWum [de], which he voice acted himself. Wum became the mascot ofAktion Sorgenkind, a German humanitarian organization. During the Christmas season of 1972 Wum's song "Ich wünsch' mir 'ne kleine Miezekatze" ("I wish I had a little kittycat"), sung insprechgesang style, became popular enough to remain in the top position of the German pop charts for nine weeks.[1] Wum also appeared in the German showDer Große Preis [de] (The Big Prize), where he appeared during breaks until the 1990s. Before long, Wum was accompanied by the elephant Wendelin, and later by Blauer Klaus (Blue Klaus), an alien hovering in with his flying saucer. Loriot wrote, drew and dubbed all of these skits by himself. Each cartoon ended with Loriot asking the viewers to take part in the TV-lottery, which supported the "Aktion Sorgenkind". When the show was dropped, the adventures of Wum and Wendelin ended as well. Today, Wum and Wendelin appear on the last page of the TV magazineGong.[citation needed]
The first episode of the German television comedy seriesLoriot was produced in 1976.In six episodes, Loriot presented sketches, usually being the protagonist himself, and short cartoons that he had drawn.Examples of sketches from the series includeDer Lottogewinner ("The lottery winner"),Jodeldiplom ("yodeling diploma") andEnglische Ansage ("English announcement").
Loriot had a love of classical music and opera. In 1982, he conducted the humorous gala concert for the 100th anniversary of theBerlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also related to the orchestra's history by kinship (Hans von Bülow, the first chief conductor of the orchestra, was distantly related to Loriot). His narrative version ofCamille Saint-Saëns'The Carnival of the Animals was repeatedly performed by Loriot with the Scharoun Ensemble, achamber music ensemble consisting of musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
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As a director, Loriot staged the operasMartha (Staatsoper Stuttgart, 1986) andDer Freischütz (Ludwigsburg, 1988). In 1983Radio Bremen produced the broadcast "Loriot's 60th birthday" for the broadcast stationARD on the occasion of Loriot's 60th birthday. In 1988 he received theBavarian Film Award, Special Prize, and in 1993 the Bavarian Film Award, Honorary Award.[3]
Loriot was awarded anhonorary doctorate by theUniversity of Wuppertal in 2001. He ishonorary citizen of his hometown ofBrandenburg an der Havel and his chosen home ofMünsing from 1993 until his death. Furthermore, Loriot was a member of theBayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste since that same year and of theBerlin Academy of Arts since 1997. He became honorary professor of theatrical arts at theBerlin University of the Arts in June 2003. He received numerous awards for his performance in TV, movies and other disciplines. He died inAmmerland atLake Starnberg of old age.[1][4]
His cartoons hinged on the contrast between the presented situation, the dignity displayed by his typically big nosed characters and the picture's caption. Inevitably one of these elements gets out of line, for example, when he combines the caption "We demand equal treatment of men and women, even if the suckling baby might temporarily lose weight." with the picture of a bulbous-nosed man breast-feeding a baby in a distinguished manner. The topics of his cartoons were mainly drawn from everyday life, scenes of the family and middle-class society. The same contrast between absurd situation and dignified behaviour of his characters could be seen in his various sketches and films.
In the sketch "Zimmerverwüstung/Das schiefe Bild" (room destruction/the crooked painting)[5] from the Loriot TV series of 1976, a maid offers a distinguished looking official – played by Loriot – who has just arrived on a house call a place in a finely furnished salon for a moment in order to let the house owners know. The person waiting looks at the furnishings from an armchair for a while. He then notices that a small oil painting hangs crooked. When he tries to correct this, he touches the adjacent painting which slides out of its frame. At nearly the same time, he accidentally throws something down from a table underneath the paintings. While reaching for it, he has to move a couch, the other end of which pushes a small table which tilts, and further items fall to the floor. In a slow chain reaction, every of his attempts to bring things in order causes further and greater disorder in the room, including whole wall shelves breaking down. His relentless efforts to repair the damage cause further damage and ultimately result in the nearly complete devastation of the salon. Finally, the maid returns, and the last camera position is behind her who stands in the opened door, looking on the still intact fraction of the room. The official walks towards her and points in the direction of the painting, with an undertone of significance telling her: "The painting hangs crooked!" (German: "Das Bild hängt schief!").
What makes the above sketch typical for Loriot is not only the complete absurdity of the whole scene including the end, but that the character, while acting extremely clumsy, never loses his temper and keeps his dignity during the evolving catastrophe. The final remark is even spoken in an incidental manner, such as if the painting would indeed be the only problem in the room, baffling the viewer (while the reaction of the maid is not shown).
Loriot's enormous popularity, his accurate language, and high-brow sense of comedy led to the adoption of a large number of phrases and inventions from the series' sketches into German common knowledge and everyday speech. Among these are certainly the "yodeling diploma", a sentence like "With that," (said diploma) "you have something of your own!", "the "stone louse", but also remarks like, "Please ... don't talk right now.", "There used to be more tinsel!", "Look, a piano! A piano, a piano!" or the laconic, hardly translatable "Ach!?" ("Oh, is it?").
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 The stamps in question |
Pictures showing Loriot's signature and Germansemi-postal stamps with topics of Loriot's work that illustrated Loriot's entry in the German-language Wikipedia were removed by theWikimedia Foundation on 8 November 2011.[6] This action was prompted by aninterim order forbidding Wikimedia to use these images, that had been initiated by an heiress, daughterSusanne von Bülow, at theLandgericht Berlin on 6 October 2011 after an email from the heiress requesting their removal had not been answered.[7] Wikimedia had to pay the cost of the legal proceedings.[6] The final court decision was announced on 27 March 2012; it upheld the interim order regarding the stamps, but overturned it for the signature. Wikimedia was ordered to pay+4⁄5 of the costs.[8]
Nicht gut genug, sonst hätte ich am 20. Juli 1944 zum Widerstand gehört. Aber für den schauerlichen deutschen Beitrag zur Weltgeschichte werde ich mich schämen bis an mein Lebensende.
