One of the distinctive characteristics of Bavarian politics is the phenomenon that politics and satire are practically inseparable. Even Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) makes no secret of his humorous ambitions. It was no coincidence that a visitor to the beer tent in Landshut recently responded to a reporter’s question about how he found Söder’s campaign speech, saying that only Monika Gruber had been funnier recently. However, Söder’s humor – and ironically also the professional comedienne Gruber’s – mostly only serves to differentiate politically. And so to the Augustinerkeller, where humor can finally fulfill its noblest task again on Monday evening.
“Cabaret before the election” is the name of the evening, and in order to categorically rule out any misinterpretation, an announcement at the beginning informs the sold-out, beer-filled hall quite explicitly about the idea behind it: “It is important to the three performers to emphasize what unites all democrats,” especially in turbulent, serious times. This is particularly remarkable because only one of the three earns his living as a cabaret artist, namely Wolfgang Krebs, whose Stoiber and Söder parodies have already secured their place in the Free State’s satirical canon. The other two are or were politicians in their day job, with Dieter Hildebrandt once saying about Christian Ude (SPD) that he was “the only cabaret artist who also runs a big city.”
The former mayor is known as a bridge builder, although some Munich Social Democrats have reportedly already asked themselves whether Ude needs to build a bridge to Georg Eisenreich, Söder’s justice minister and CSU district leader, in the middle of the state election campaign. While Ude, with the routine of a stage person, reports on the secret and apparently nerve-wracking “exercise program for mayors” before the Oktoberfest tapping (30 dry runs on an empty barrel), it is undoubtedly Eisenreich who has to prove himself in the Augustinerkeller. More than twenty years ago he took his first steps as a young cabaret artist before slipping into politics.
Now he recommends survival strategies in the mattress camp at the alpine hut (“If it stinks, then it smells like me”) and shares the most important insights into dealing with party friends (“Everyone sticks together. Unless someone is in need”). Eisenreich does it both quietly and charmingly. He just wishes that Markus Söder never finds out that the Prime Minister might not be the funniest man in the cabinet.