A firework of humorous literature
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Audience was enthralled by a literary event
of a special kind
A firework of humorous literature was displayed to the audience in the foyer of the BARTEC headquarters in Bad Mergentheim last Friday. In cooperation with the public library of Bad Mergentheim, the internationally active safety technology provider had organized a reading with Gerd Berghofer at the company headquarters. Under the motto “Yet another word… or: The cheerfulness of the heart!“, the reciter presented humorous and biographical details from the life and works of Kurt Tucholsky, Joachim Ringelnatz and Heinz Erhardt. A numerous audience listened rapturously to the reciter and rewarded his rhetorical brilliance with an almost never-ending applause.
Whether Kurt Tucholsky, Joachim Ringelnatz or Heinz Erhardt: Each of these gentlemen is known for his own inimitable style of humor. This is why Gerd Berghofer, who has already won several prizes for his own poetry and prose, included each of these writers in his program. At first he recited works of the quite satirical writer Kurt Tucholsky: the world-shaking question of how the holes got into the cheese, the famous crossword puzzle done with violence, or the sociological psychology of holes - which made tears of laughter come into the listeners´ eyes - aroused much mirth. These humorous stories were studded with biographical anecdotes from the writers´s life revealing some sides of the artist´s character which had previously been quite unknown.
After the break, Gerd Berghofer continued by reading some works of Joachim Ringelnatz. A special highlight was the original story of the mariner Kuddel Daddeldu telling his children the fairy tale of Red Riding Hood. On the other hand, poems such as “Ich habe Dich so lieb (I love you so much)“ showed that beside the satirical component there is also something melancholic and sensitive in his stories. Again Gerd Berghofer rounded off the reading with some interesting details from the biography of Joachim Ringelnatz, whose real name was Hans Bötticher.
Stories and poems with a deeper meaning written by the popular humorist and poet Heinz Erhardt were the last event of the program. With his amusing view on things such as how marriageable daughters are married off to sceptical men, his somewhat different but very entertaining versions of poem classics such as the “Erlkönig”, or his story about the thunderstorm freely adapted from Ludwig Uhland, the inventor of the street of the same name, this pleasurable evening came to a successful end.
As one of the most important employers in the Tauber valley, BARTEC supports the region in various ways. One priority is the promotion of culture. The reading conducted by Gerd Berghofer was the successful continuation of a series of events organized in cooperation with the public library of Bad Mergentheim. Further interesting and entertaining events will follow in the course of the next year.
Press release
Bad Mergentheim, Germany
October 2008