80th birthday: How the cabaret artist and dialect master Gunter Böhnke became a role model in Saxony | free press

2023-09-01 07:30:00

The Dresdener helped found the Academixer in Leipzig, made Saxon in cabaret socially acceptable and appeared on stage in a duet with the likes of Jürgen Hart and Bernd-Lutz Lange

cabaret.

He was born in the Saxon state capital as the son of an East Prussian father and a woman from Dresden. They made him speak High German. But in vain. He took to Saxons because he wanted to fit in at school. It’s hard to believe that Gunter Böhnke can also speak High German. But as a folksy Saxon and cabaret artist, he has been known and loved for decades. What is less known is that the anglist made a name for himself as a translator. He also wrote books, but his passion was the stage. Nothing came of his acting studies, so he began studying to become a teacher in Leipzig in 1963.

But the way to the student stage was not far there. He met Jürgen Hart, a student teacher for German and music, who was soon commissioned to run the “Academixer” cabaret. And he asked Böhnke if he didn’t want to take part. He agreed. Starting in 1966 as a student cabaret artist, the goal was still to become a teacher. He then withdrew from it and became a successful translator. He then had to get along with the equally successful amateur cabaret artist. This was only possible by spending the entire day and little sleep. At first there were seven performances a month, ten years later with short appearances 22. At some point that was too much. He temporarily worked part-time in the publishing house, and in 1979 he became a full-time cabaret artist, employed by the city council. For him, it was a decision out of passion for the stage, because he was a department head in the publishing house and, as a GDR citizen, was a traveling squad for France and Great Britain.

The Academixers were the darlings of the younger generation. With their Saxon dialect, they were virtually public property for the public. They had been taught how to use the dialect by colleagues at the Leipziger Pfeffermühle. Above all by the disarmingly funny Manfred Stephan. Böhnke was unsurpassable as a man from the street. And if the texts also fulfilled the principle “bright, heeflich and heemdiggsch”, one experienced great cabaret moments. When the Academixer brought the texts of the dialect poet Lene Voigt to the stage in 1980, it was a turning point for the Eastern cabaret. It was the beginning of the heyday of the Saxony programs, which continues to this day. The subversive potential of the Saxon dialect, which immediately destroys any pathos, is particularly appealing. Made for cabaret. Especially for Böhnke.

In the political programs of the Academixer in the last decade of the GDR, two mimes went particularly well together. Gunter Böhnke and Bernd-Lutz Lange. They differed significantly and complemented each other well. And they were also very close. It was almost logical that the duo Böhnke/Lange came into being in 1988. The first program was called “I’ll start right away”. It was about Leipzig, it was about Saxony, it was also about the GDR. A new game in the Academixer basement. And so the two of them were very well prepared for the coming time in the united republic. Strictly speaking, this is when Böhnke’s most successful time began. He translated again, wrote books, of course about Saxony. The programs with Lange were in demand all over Germany, they were hired for the “lookup” after the daily topics on the ARD, got the program “Leute gibt’s” on the MDR. After 15 years, the duo finally ended their collaboration, but then filled all the halls for a while with Tom Pauls and the texts of Lene Voigt. Looking back, Böhnke sowed for many years and worked with perseverance, now he experienced the time of the harvest. As before, is on the stage. From that point of view, he did everything right.