The floats at the Rose Monday parades in Cologne and Düsseldorf are, as always, political. Putin having oral sex, Trump with Nazi symbols – and the Chancellor grinning smurfily in the rain of confetti and camels.
Cologne, the undisputed champion of constant self-celebration, is not just a city for the people of Cologne, but somehow also the entire world. The motto of this year’s Rose Monday procession, “Wat e Theater – wat e Jeckespill”, can be applied just as well to world events as to an endless local farce in Cologne – such as the construction work on the city’s stages, which has been going on for a decade and will (possibly) be completed this year . In any case, the theme floats always have a theatrical reference, a very grateful theme for the carnivalesque stage.