Otto Waalkes has been in the business for 50 years – as a musician, painter and comedian. Shortly before his 75th he has his first exhibition in Bavaria and his “Friesenjung” a grandiose comeback.
Museum director Daniel Schreiber does not know whether there has ever been such a rush in his house. Perhaps at the opening, but that is not certain. He himself had never experienced that.
The reason for the flashbulbs in the Buchheim Museum in Bernried on Lake Starnberg is an East Frisian: Otto Waalkes is opening his first picture exhibition in Bavaria there. “Otto – The Exhibition” starts this Saturday. “A small step for mankind, but a big step for a Frisian painter,” says Waalkes. “I thought, they don’t even know me here.” It’s “so far away from home”.
“Friesenjung” in first place
Waalkes has been in the business for more than 50 years and will be 75 in July. The fact that interest in him is so great at the moment is also due to one of his songs from 1993: his “Friesenjung” has made an amazing comeback, and he did it number one on the singles chart this week.
“I wouldn’t have dared to do that either, because a completely new audience has been opened up again,” says Waalkes in an interview with the German Press Agency shortly before the opening of the exhibition with his Ottifanten pictures. “Suddenly I’m welcomed on the street – aaah – with enthusiasm. You’re happy to accept that, why not?”
The song also owes its surprising success to a collaboration with the Berlin rapper Ski Aggu and the social media platform Tiktok – but not only, as Waalkes says.
“That’s because of the timelessness of these songs, which I parodied at the time,” he explains the success in the dpa interview. “And if you then bring in the zeitgeist and a certain pace, then it becomes topical again.” Next year it might be a classic version.
Ottifants in Art History
The exhibition in Bernried, which starts this Saturday, shows around 200 paintings and drawings in which Waalkes mainly uses Ottifanten in well-known works of art history.
You can also see record covers, film posters or props such as the Pilsum lighthouse. The show, which is scheduled to run until November 5, is “a cross-section of his life’s work,” according to the museum – and it’s also a kind of birthday present for the 75th in July. “He really wanted to open up the south for himself,” says museum director Daniel Schreiber.
“Of course that’s a great confirmation, that’s clear,” says Waalkes about his current success. “I had switched off long ago and retired – but now it’s going on again.”
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
