DEUTSCHLAND. EIN LABERMÄRCHEN.
Julia Nitschke & Caroline Kapp
Caroline Kapp and Julia Nitschke performatively examine how the football summer of 2006 made German national pride suitable for the masses once again, and how it defended itself against the repression of the Nazi past in a fairy-tale fictional manner.
Anyone who was there at the time, whether as a reporter or a fan, can still remember the euphoria that gripped Germany when the 2006 World Cup was held on home soil for the second time since 1974. While the German car flags fluttered, the German men’s football team only came third, but the mood was still high. Beautiful weather, packed stadiums and the triumph of public viewing in squares, streets and pubs. A summer fairytale, almost too good to be true. A summer fairytale that allowed Germany to turn the page on the “dark chapter” of its history and successfully integrate it into the master narrative of a unified German identity.
DEUTSCHLAND. EIN LABERMÄRCHEN. takes a close look at the football summer of 2006. Beginning with the collective raising of the German flag, the open-air performance explores the historical turning point that made German national pride and identification suitable for the masses once again. Kapp and Nitschke sit together in a talk-show style and talk about their research trip through the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. Using the image of invincible German football as a framing metaphor, the two artists talk incessantly about the German present, about current events, about the tensions between a Jewish poet in exile and the resurgence of nationalism.
Cast & Credits:
Performance and concept: Caroline Kapp, Julia Nitschke
Sound design: Florian Wulff
Space and costume: Die Blaue Distanz (Adam Erdmann & Franziska Goralski)
Mentor: Enis Maci
Production management: Helene Ewert
Dramaturgy: Isabelle Wapnitz
Assistant director: Miriam Brost
Assistance room: Michelle Richter
Outfit assistance: Pia Schepers
Artistic Consultancy: Manon Haase
Supported by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Funded as part of the #TakeHeart Wiederaufnahmeförderung. A co-operation with the Oval Office Bar.
About the artists
Julia Nitschke and Caroline Kapp have been working for over five years on absurd performances about social politics. They question the politics of memory and the construction of identity in relation to Germany. They say: There are a few good moments here and there, but overall there is a gaping abyss when you look at the way right-wing violence is dealt with, which is becoming even clearer as a result of Hanau, Halle, Potsdam and the NSU.
