Anyone who lives near the Munich Südfriedhof might think they are feeling slight vibrations. Because one can assume that Dieter Hildebrandt is rotating there in his grave. Because the laughing and shooting society, Germany’s most famous cabaret institution and a central part of Hildebrandt’s legacy, is on the verge of collapse. “The shop”, as it has always been called in the scene, is now without management and gastronomy. There is a lawsuit going on between the shareholders. Game operations have been suspended since Monday. The artists who performed recently no longer received a fee, but the message: “The company is in trouble. Lawyers are checking whether bankruptcy will be filed.”
There are quite a few in the scene who date the beginning of this fatal development to September 20, 2021. Totally surprising – and shortly after the celebrations for the 65th anniversary – Till Hofmann, who managed the laughing and shooting society for 20 years, announced that he would resign as managing director and also give up his shares. At the time, he gave as a reason: “Due to the death of Dieter Hildebrandt, the later departure of Renate Hildebrandt and most recently the death of Wolfgang Nöth, the composition of Lach & Schiess Betriebsgesellschaft mbH has changed several times , a common line for the further leadership and orientation of the laughing and shooting society can be found more.” And added that the shareholder Bruno Jonas could lead the “shop” to new shores with his name and as an outstanding cabaret artist. The conditions are good with the existing ensemble, which is being funded by the city for the first time.
As peaceful as that sounded, things hadn’t happened behind the scenes. Jonas and Hofmann, both of whom were and are still connected to each other as shareholders in the comedy theater run by Hofmann, had only spoken to each other through lawyers for a long time at that point. According to reports, Jonas was chronically suspicious of Hofmann’s increasingly extensive activities with five, at times even more, stages and music clubs in Munich and Vienna, his Eulenspiegel agency, his label “Millaphon” and his involvement with the social cooperative “Bellevue di Monaco”.
In October 2021, the new operators will introduce themselves on stage: (from left) Bruno Jonas, Leila Nöth and Stefan Hanitzsch.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
The new strong man, Bruno Jonas, announced that literary cabaret should once again play a more important role, as it did in the days of Dieter Hildebrandt. It should become politically relevant again, but comedy should be reduced. However, he did not want to take the lead. In addition to him and Leila Montana Nöth, daughter and heiress of Wolfgang Nöth, the 46-year-old political scientist and journalist Stefan Hanitzsch, son of the cartoonist and Hildebrandt intimate Dieter Hanitzsch, became a shareholder and became managing director.
A recording studio was set up in which performances were to be recorded
Hanitzsch announced big plans for the restart in December 2021, which initially only started with individual streams due to Corona. The laughing and shooting society wanted to be independently successful economically and in terms of content. On the one hand, old lines of business such as guest performances in larger houses or television productions should be revived. But the most important thing for Hanitzsch was to lead Lach- und Schiess into the “digital era”. A recording studio was set up in the neighboring office, in which performances would be recorded and streamed, and audio books, the Bruno Jonas column and podcasts would be produced. The studio should also be rented out in order to generate income.
However, things didn’t get off to a good start from the start. The renovation work dragged on endlessly, the homepage looked provisional, employees for booking and press work came and went, for months on the laugh and shoot homepage there was above all a reference to the “Central Council of Humor” founded by Bruno Jonas and that with it associated “Humor Symposium”, at which scientists and cabaret artists in teams of two wanted to get to the bottom of the phenomenon of laughter last November. The main sponsor of the event was the Schörghuber group of companies.
This was the next big bang. Jonas dismissed Hanitzsch as managing director with Nöth’s vote and tried to withdraw his shares as well. After an injunction, a legal dispute is now under way. The process can take time. It is rumored that the 86-year-old media entrepreneur and FDP member of parliament Helmut Markwort is said to be in the starting blocks to take over Hanitzsch’s shares. You have to know that Dieter Hildebrandt didn’t talk to his friend Dieter Hanitzsch for a long time after he joined Markwort’s regulars’ table on Bavarian television.
The main entrance to the Munich Laughing and Shooting Society in Schwabing.
(Photo: Imago/Karo)
Since then, chaos has reigned, one may say so. Roswitha Seelos, Bruno Jonas’ agent for many years, took over the management on an interim basis after Hanitzsch, but the search for a new full-time employee was unsuccessful. A daily running program, let alone a structure for it, never materialized. Negotiations with the brewery about a new lease agreement have been stalled for a long time, and there is no corresponding concession for a functioning catering trade. Only the in-house ensemble remained loyal to the store.
Game operations have been suspended until further notice
Last Friday, contrary to instructions, they played in front of a full house – and took over the cash register and catering at the same time. The accounts receivable from the three members, some of whom have small children, now total more than 20,000 euros, while lawyers have probably been paid similar sums in the meantime.
Bruno Jonas, who otherwise does not want to make any further comments, says that he lacks an overview of the numbers and the legal situation. In a press release distributed by his lawyer on Monday, the blame for the situation is placed on the former shareholders Hofmann and Hanitzsch as well as the “effects of the corona epidemic” and announces: “The majority of the shareholders have therefore decided to & Schieß Betriebsgesellschaft mbH to review the legal and financial effects of the current situation and therefore to stop gaming operations until further notice.”
It’s not the first time in their history that the laugh and shoot society has been in trouble. But they were overcome earlier through the supply of fresh blood: At the end of the 1970s, for example, by bringing the young Bruno Jonas into the ensemble. Or in the general crisis of the ensemble cabaret at the beginning of the millennium – at that time, Till Hofmann, who was once patron of Bruno Jonas, was brought into the house.