The set was very good, but I think a lot of things just got lost due to a terrible translation. It was obviously automatically translated and badly at that. For example when he says about Sigmar Gabriel: "Fat and Stupid used to be two people". Sigmar Gabriel I think was foreign minister at that time and Fat and Stupid are (or used to be) the german names for Laurel and Hardy
Bouquet billion credit.... the translation has its own humor. There was a politician by the name Franz Josef Strauß (Strauss: engl. bouquet like flowers - but the germans say ostrich) He gave the GDR a credit.
@@phillips43 That's what he said. Only Germany did that and he thinks it's disrespectful to the artists, which I do agree on. At least we kept their original names in the cartoon series.
Reiner Calmund is a former football executive. He maintained an image as a 'gentle giant'. The joke is about him being really fat at that time (even he stopped gaining weight at some point). He lost a lot of weight since then though. Pegida (patriotic europeans against the islamisation of the west) is a far right wing movement that formed in 2014. They demonstrated mostly against syrian refugees and they hold their demonstrations on mondays, like the people did in 1989 in the DDR (GDR), as well as trying to reclaim their famous 'wir sind das Volk' (we are the people) slogan.
@@annnee6818 no they are not or they're so tiny nobody heared of them, the people who are called far right today are not far left that's all. Leader of Italy somehow far right never sad anything or did anything far right AFD pretty similar pegida another example if you can show the the organized mop who hunts foreigners we can talk about far right the closest we came to that was probably the NSU and that's again over 15 years ago and where 3 people.
@@annnee6818 you are called far right if you are against fascism today so pls take a break, maybe we can cound Jehovah's Witnesses, or scientology but I would count them into religious fanatics and not really political. And yeah we have a few neo Nazis but they aren't organized and are more or less right wing punks who are to stupid to think (calling themself after a far left movement and being far right is also quit ironic isn't it)
@@asddasdasdasdadsa How about the "Reichsbürger" organization? The "Azov Battalion", huge organizations of european Neo-nazis, there several different european magazines on the German VS watchlist (constitutional police) to NOT call them "far right" is absolutely ridiculous! What you may be mistaking is that we have little to no "LEFT politics" in europe anymore even the most stereotypical "left-parties" are dumb enough to mistake "liberalism" for "political left" CDU was once supposed to be a "Party of the middle" their politics are now something easily considered "right-winged" in weimar republic! "Far right" doesn't necessarily mean "they want to kill and mass murder foreigners" its a political position of discrimination against certain groups in society... in that respect you could say most parties in germany are in some way "far right" after all they almost all unitarily "discriminate against the general middle and lower economic classes through their finacial and social politics"....
Sigmar Gabriel is a former german politician and he ist not skinny at all. Volkers sentence "Früher waren 'Dick und Doof' mal zwei" roughly translates to "In the past, Stan and Ollie were two different people" 'Dick und Doof' (Fat and stupid) was the german name for the iconic comedy duo and both adjectives seem to fit quite well for Mr. Gabriel. Also 'einschleimen' means something like 'boot licking' or 'brownnosing'.
I'm impressed how well you handled that horrific (auto-)translation. So much context and coherence got lost on the way. And that doesn't even include the things you can't really translate to begin with ... like the "book someone ought to write", which refers to a book called "Deutschland schafft sich ab" (Germany abolishes itself) by Thilo Sarrazin, that dealt with migration and asylum and has sparked massive controversy.
Cesspool was a wordplay. In german it's "Jauchegrube" and in german television there was a political talkshow every sunday evening, moderated by Günter Jauch. So: Jauch's talkshow = JAUCHegrube = cesspool.
What I like about Volker Pispers is that he can explain complex things in a simple way. Well, he was a teacher - and not a bad one I guess. What I like about you is your critical, open mind, your genuine appearence and your accent ;) Go ahead!
WestLB is the 'Landesbank Nordrhein-Westfalen', the head bank of the local savings banks of that province. They are infamous for being the first german Bad Bank after several bad business decisions regarding stock trading and dabbling in US subprime lending resulting in having to transfer assets worth 85 Bn. Euros to a winding up agency. An interesting sidenote: CDU chairperson Friedrich Merz got paid 5000 Euros a day to facilitate the sale of the WestLB (without success).
Volker Pispers constantly switches between irony and bitter truth, back and forth. It's really not easy to understand, especially when reading only the English translation. Therefore, great video!
10:10 ...lost in translation... Stan & Ollie / Laurel and Hardy... in german "Dick und Doof" (the fat and the stupid). Sigmar Gabriel, former vice chancellor, is a combination of those.
To fully understand and appreciate Pisper's humor you need to know a lot of German history, culture, politics, and language. Countless clever allusions throughout. It's absolutely brilliant.
Indeed. Since he played roles and did not break characters, he really hit the tragedy behind some politics. His impersonation of a retired SPD voter, who always believed in the right cause and just wants to afford some ham on his bread after a long life of work, is still heartbreaking for me.
Reiner Calmund used to be an (overweight) football executive in Germany. He is retired now but when he was still active he was regularly mocked for his weight problems in an ironic way. I guess the reason is that he was never offended by any of that, so it was a low-risk-metaphor. ;) Nowadays this doesn't work anymore as he got a stomach reduction surgery in 2020 and since lost half of his weight (used to be 180kg). If you google his name (as spelled in my comment), you should still be able to find pictures of him "in his full glory". PEGIDA (unironically a short form for Patriotische Europäer Gegen die Islamisierung Des Abendlandes, translating to patriotic europeans against the islamization of the western world) is a right wing populist movement that organizes weekly demonstrations especially in eastern Germany. Regarding the former GDR as West Germanys low wage sector: It's of course nothing that historians would say like that but it's true that labor costs were a lot lower in eastern Germany and a lot of exports from eastern Germany went into the west, so as a metaphor to make a point this definitely works, even though you shouldn't take that comparison at face value. The principle applies but it's over-exaggerated (which is the intention of his program). I personally agree with most of Volker Pispers points. He has really well developed points and it's fun AND inspiring to listen to his takes on history and politics. Regarding similar artists from Germany I'd recommend Hagen Rether and the Kabarett-Show "Die Anstalt".
Your sense of ‚fun‘ has masochistic tendencies…😅 I like Volker Pispers, but honestly just watching this particular program pop up while having to think about every Euro I spend was a bit like looking in the mirror after a night out! You know it‘s your own fault, and it was fun while it lasted, ….but he will make you suffer for it!
ARGE is short for Arbeitsgemeinschaft (literally translated into working group) It was also our Federal Employment Agency that tried to get people into jobs again and paid welfare to those, that hadnt been employed for a long time.
Wasting money, on the useless as I call it, I mean it's still better than what we do in Sweden, have you heard about 40 hour work weeks unpaid? We call it, work-life experience training. Well technically we call it work market training... Government pays 5'000SEK per month to a workplace, to have an inexperienced person work at the workplace for free. The good old phrase Work or Die, was a good thing in the past, people who didn't want to starve to death, went out looking for work, those who got work lived, and those who didn't well they became the work of the gravedigger, nowadays Work or Die is quite literally you Work for this company for free, or we'll remove your welfare, which isn't enough to keep you alive in the first place either.
It is not "actual" (which is a "false friend" meaning "tatsächlich"), but you certainly mean that his old stuff is still *applicable* ("zutreffend"), *valid* ("gültig") or *current* ("aktuell"). 😉
Yes he brings facts and saying it, as if they are common sense, obvious for everybody who wants to see. He doesnt play characters, like the georgeous Georg Schramm did, Volker Pispers is pure satire like a friend would use. 👍Good catch this piece
Hello friend. Its a pleasure to see you watching Volker Pispers classics on youtube. I'm from Germany and a big Pispers fan. He's a comedy legend and comes from my area here as well (Düsseldorf). Can't await see you watching the next parts from Pispers.
Until 2010, a job center was called "ARGE" (Arbeitsgemeinschaft SGB II). The Federal Employment Agency is responsible for the federal funds, such as funds for placement in work and standard benefits, in a joint facility. Now it is simply JOB CENTER, and it handles as well domestic town welfare help in communes.
Unfortunately the subtitles are horrible!! I am impressed you can understand anything at all. Thank you for soldigering through tho, love your reactions to Volker and the Heute Show
TILL REINERS is another satire artist I would recommend to you, since you asked wether there were others in the like of Volker Pisper´s style. He is equally sharp and brilliant in describing the weirdness of circumstands rather then roasting single people. He is a frequent guest of the "Anstalt" and "Heute Show" which you both reacted to before, and hosts his own satire show now called "Till Reiners Happy Hour", but I mostly enjoyed his solistic stand-up performances - to be found on youtube...
All recent and former hosts of the "Anstalt" - namely MAX UTHOFF, KLAUS VON WAGNER as well as URBAN PRIOL and ERWIN PELZIG respectively provided really strong and highly political solistic programs. The latter ones in strong local accents (might eigther increase the difficulty of translation or increase the joy :) )
Hey, first thank you for all your reactions! As a German it's interesting to see and hear a Brit (whose humour/sarcasm I always admired) react to german satire artists. I feel the humour in the UK is more about a general 'sarcasm' about situations in life and in Germany it's much more political (don't know why, maybe because of the political past?) & btw: Volker Pispers is one of a kind, the kind of way he speaks and brings his arguments to the point is very special and I think the nearest you get to his way are the known formats 'HeuteShow/DieAnstalt/Extra3' ☺️
I have been on Volkers farewell tour and most of the time the laugter got stuck in my throat. It is all too close to the truth. And although there are alternatives like "Die Anstalt" he is dearly missed.
Those subtitles are insane :D i wish more german comedians would do stand up or shows in english. Even in Germany there is a market for english comedy, humor and food are universal languages
Volker always gets to the point. Also very good is the German satirical show 'Die Anstalt'. They show the flaws in our country and the political parties very vividly.
WestLB AG was an internationally active Landesbank headquartered in Düsseldorf, which was allowed to conduct all banking business as a credit institution. It also acted as the giro center for the savings banks and the principal bank of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. WestLB was split into three parts on June 30, 2012, following some financial inconsistencies.
Know you only over the Pisper Reaction Videos. And as an leftist german i am happy to see when others explore the german "Kabarett". I can warmly recommend you "Die Anstalt". A political satiric Show with very precise analytics, and always with a fact check to support the arguments they bring.
Wow, that you found Volker Pispers! Respect! This cabaret artist really is the crème de la crème of German political cabaret. I've also learned a few things with him that you'd rather suppress. It's a pity that he has retired, but I understand when you spend years "educating" people and nothing changes.
15:00 The shelf was named 'billy'. It is like the word 'billig' (cheap), but the letter 'ig' was mixed together into a 'y'. Or the 'g' was missing, just like the screws or the holes. ^^
In the early 80s, Volker Pispers was a teacher at my school. I didn't take any lessons from him myself, but I often saw him in the schoolyard. He was popular, but also a little strict. I think he's great as a comedian, but unfortunately he doesn't do that anymore.
Hi, Mert! Thank you so much for these videos about Volker Pispers (a bloody genius, incredible talent for the right use of our german language). You understand him very well, despite the awful subtitles. And you show a great amount of genuine interest, props for that! Allow me a question, please: do you have turkish or maybe albanian ancestors? Beacuse your name is a turkish one, I have a cousin with the same name :)
16:10 Arge is the abriviation of Arbeitsgemeinschaft (working partnership). East Germany was like 'Made in China' of the past, and West Germany was buying and consuming the products
It's all true. I'm an old West Berliner. I was 9 years old when the Berlin Wall was built. In 1980 I married a woman who lives in East Berlin. It was complicated because her uncle was the first refugee in Berlin-Hafen to be shot in 1961. I know things made in the east were sold in the west. Things that weren't quite right were sold to the Easterners at exorbitant prices - example: howling record players, broken washing machines - imprisoned Discidents were also sold to the West.
The point of the lottery comparison is not the luck aspect. It's the fact that you need a certain amount of people not profiting to make one profiting big time. That's the point. Workers are not there to win, they are there to pay for the winners.
I once saw a picture of the wall of a public toilet where someone had written "we buy things we don't need, with money we don't have to impress people we don't like." and someone else had written underneath "we write words on toilet walls that aren't our's to impress people we don't know" or something along those lines. I think I don't remember the answer correctly... yea, the walls of public toilets, the original social media. and the german author and .. Kleinkünstler (also by now, film director and who knows what else he's up to) Mark Uwe Kling, takes this idea one step further in his books (Quality land). and makes the neo liberals (as a political party) register as an official church (like the catholic or protestant church in germany). in his books the neo liberals claim it was just to save taxes.. but it's really just being honest.
The electric irons for ironing sold at the Quelle Versand which was German Amazon sold for 19.90 Deutschmark have been all produced in either East Germany or other east European Countries..
Another good guy but also one of the broken ones. Schramm left the cabaret with the same reason as Pispers left. Both are tired of explaining basic knowledge but without subsequent actions from the audience.
The capitalism lottery comparison was not about capitalist success depending on luck, it was about everybody being able to reach top 10 percent of society, but not all together can be top 10 percent of society. You can become part of the top 10 percent of society, because 90 percent won't.
Whole point of capitalism is to enmass wealth in the hand of very few people. It is overall the same thing as feudalism, just not about estate but machines.
„Reicher Mann und armer Mann standen da und sah’n sich an, und der Arme sagte bleich: ‚Wär ich nicht arm wärst du nicht reich.’“ (Bertolt Brecht) // Rich man, poor man faced each other in a van. Said the poor man with a twitch: Were I not poor, you wouldn't be rich.
@@Cleeves358 thx, but I haven't used the word "everyone", so anybody instead of everybody as well? I thought "every-" is used for defined group of people and "any-" for undefined.
I discovered Volker Pispers in 2010 when I was 16. It was an eye opener. I went from totally uninteressted in politics and history to full on economy nerd and liberal communistic know it all. It was great. I learned so much. Now I'm much more nuanced in my opinions but I still think that Volker Pispers is mostly right.
@@thomaskoke7139 You misunderstood that. I meant "right" in the meaning of "richtig" or "correct". Aber bitte überdenk du doch mal, ob dein Kommentar der richtige Weg wäre, jemanden wirklich dazu zu bringen, sich zu informieren, wenn er eine solche Überzeugung hätte, wie du sie mir unterstellt hast. Be curiuos, not judgemental!
Rainer Calmund and PEGIDA have already been described very well in another comment. Sigmar Gabriel is a former Economics Minister. He made some difficult testimonies and allowed Germany's largest robotics company (Kuka) to be sold to China. If you are looking for a satirist who is also very good, take a look at Thorsten Sträter's videos. Go in a similar direction.
The East of Germany (GDR/DDR) could not keep up with the economic growth supported by the USA, for they were also partially exploited by the UDSSR. They tried to better their economy with production for e.g. IKEA. The currency and the production costs were lower than in West Germany. Therefore students and people with lower wages from the West could afford products from the GDR/DDR easier. It was like a transfer of wealth that continued even after the Fall of the Berlin Wall by western Companies and Investors (from GER West and International) buying up Eastern German companies, exploiting them and letting them die. This problem is to be seen from multiple perspectives, for it is a very complex situation, but I think that example can give an easy to understand impression.
17:47 I think the point Volker wants to make by comparing capitalism to the lottery is not that it is based on luck. He said that in the lottery, everyone can become a millionare, but not all (at the same time). So even though in capitalism, everyone has the chance to succeed, it is impossible for all people to be successful at the same time and there will always be the losers of capitalism who do much work and get few money.
Oh, there are so many. Political satire/cabaret has a long tradition in Germany. Long before WW2. But it really started to shine in the 1950s and 1960s. One of the fathers of modern political cabaret was the fantastic Dieter Hildebrandt and those around him: Gerhard Polt, Werner Schneyder, Hans-Dieter Hüsch. Other great names were/are Henning Venske, Jochen Busse, Rainer Basedow, Hans Scheibner. From the generation of Volker Pispers there are Urban Priol, Jochen Malmsheimer, Georg Schramm. And then there are the younger ones: Hagen Rether, Kai Magnus Sting, Christoph Sieber, Max Uthoff, Claus von Wagner and Tobias Mann. There is just one thing to consider: Real political satirists do not like to be named in the same breath with comedians.
I am from germany and I can jsut say he is about 100% right with everything. And what he says is hard to hear but its just the truth. About the coruption in Germany as well as what stupid ideas are getting around in our country.
I think introducing the concept of lottery is not so much the notion of luck, as it is the fact, that in order for a few people to get rich you have to have a massive base underneath to get poor.
Einschleimen means to suck up to someone. In this context it refers to Sigmar Gabriels quote that you have to take right wing protesters seriously. V. Pispers thinks that Gabriel said that to suck up to them to get their votes potentially.
Sigmar Gabriel was secretary and vice-president of germany. "Einschleimen" means kissing ass or sucking up. Gabriel changed his views and friends quite a lot for his own career and for his political party. As well as Reiner Calmund he was quite a large person for some time.
WestLB was a bank in west germany for medium to large companies. After the reunion they tried the same strategy in what used to be east-germany. But the companies build in the centrally planned economy of east-germany did not scale as expected. In 2012 the bank was closed and sold.
okay, it's quite impressive how much you were able to decipher context through those terrible subtitles. It's auto-translated I'm assuming; I hope there are better versions somewhere.
13:08 As many others have already said: I would recommend Georg Schramm as another critical voice in the face of capitalism. The only thing is: He often acted out his parts as some character with a German dialect. So I assume that well written (!) subtitles would be good in his case.
On the topic of East-West Germans Olaf Schubert is very good cabaret artist to watch - even a must watch. He dresses as a "stereotypical" east german (traditionally playing an east-german), always wearing an old/retro green/yellow slipover/ sleeveless pullover. He is often part of "heute show" as the "quota-east-german", presenting among other things an "east-german" perspective on topics. Unfortunately there is no video of him online, that I know of, with english subtitles. So you probably, sadly, can't understand any of them. Yet, he stays a good recommendation.
Es ist zu niedlich 😂 , er versteht nicht alles , manche Begriffe sind wahrscheinlich schlecht zu übersetzen 😂, ich schau in sein Gesicht und muss schmunzeln 😊
As you asked about it: Rainer Calmund is a former German football manager. He was very famous for being tall, if not suffering from obesity. Hence Volker's remark to endless growth
Sigmar Gabriel is the former leader of the SPD, with a very imposing 'stature'. And 'Dick & Doof' (fat & stupid) are the monikers used for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in Germany.
and to add to it, because the subtitles were really off here: Pispers said that “Dick und Doof”/“Fat and Stupid” (as in Hardy and Laurel) used to be two persons, whereas Sigmar Gabriel combines the two into one… essentially is is fat AND stupid…
If you want to know about another good satire show: I can highly recommend "Die Anstalt", I think you actually already watched a short video from this show. They release a new episode each month. But I'm not sure, if these episodes are availabe with english subtitles :/
the subs are terrible but you still managed to filter out the meaning quite well, good job. when you ask for more like him, Georg Schramm or Urban Priol are the two names i would recommend.
17:18 The translation software also didn't get the difference between "alle" and "jeder" :D In that context it would be like "everyone can play the lottery, but not every single one can win". There were more some confusing tranlations
Thank you for upload and nice reactions. In my opinion, do not misunderstand Volker Pispers. He do not make comedy, satire nor cabaret. It is an accusation as an humanist , as an human being. We need to make the next step of evolution. Or some people of the world realize very soon, that the world we are living in is just a dream. The reality will fight back one day,
"Einschleimen" means "kissing up" or "sucking up". The "cesspool" joke is a wordplay on Günther Jauch, a famous TV host, who at that time hosted a talk show on Das Erste, with "Jauch" being similar to "Jauche" which means as much as sewage. And "the first programming" is the channel Das Erste, which literally just means "the first" since it was the first federal TV broadcasting company. Similar to the BBC it's a publicly owned broadcaster and not in private hands. The "fat and stupid" joke is a play on the German name for Laurel and Hardy, an American-British comedy duo out of the silent film era that still have a relatively large fan base in Germany. The German title of the duo was "Dick und Doof" which means "fat and stupid". Generally speaking, these subtitles are a bit subpar. It's often enough just autogenerated based on the exact meaning of a word, not the contextual meaning within a phrase or sentence. And sometimes words just weren't translated at all, like "einschleimen" or later "Walt" which means "forrest" and wasn't even written correctly in German since we write it we a "d" at the end, not a "t". Furthermore, Sigmar Gabriel at the time was the federal chair of the SPD, the German equivalent to the Labour Party in the UK. In that position, Gabriel also served as Vice Chancellor under Merkel from 2013 till 2018. For most of that time, and I think also while this was recorded, he was also the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs. Pegida was a far-right protest movement in Dresden that kinda fuctioned as a base for the rise of the AfD at the time. The AfD being Germany's far-right political party. 13:35 "Bouquet" is another sign that this was not translated by a human. While the German word "Strauß" can be a short form for "Blumenstrauß" which means "bouquet", in this case this is not what it means. Strauß was the last name of right-wing politician Franz-Josef Strauß, to this day revereed by the conservative CSU in Bavaria and made infamous through the Spiegel-Affaire in 1962, when he used his position as Federal Defence Minister to order a raid on the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel after a critical article about the battle readiness of the Bundeswehr (German military) had been published there. This was a major attack on the freedom of the press and Strauß had to leave but he did return into government. He not only did become Federal Finance Minister four years later, he was the Minister President (basically governor) of Bavaria from 1978 to 1988. In that position he was essential in getting the Western German federal government to agree to give the Eastern German government a major loan in the sum of billions back in 1982/83. 17:18 "Everyone and everyone" is another really bad translation. Better would be "anyone and everyone".
Too bad that the subtitles are quite horrible.
Oh gosh, yes.... 😔🙈
They're quite literal.....
True…True❤
Indeed... luckily I understand both.
They need to be redone with the help of DeepL
These are really bad English subtitles. They seem hardly English at all.
The subtitles are soooooo bad on this one. Im impressed you made any sense out of them. Mad RESPECT!
The set was very good, but I think a lot of things just got lost due to a terrible translation. It was obviously automatically translated and badly at that. For example when he says about Sigmar Gabriel: "Fat and Stupid used to be two people". Sigmar Gabriel I think was foreign minister at that time and Fat and Stupid are (or used to be) the german names for Laurel and Hardy
Bouquet billion credit.... the translation has its own humor. There was a politician by the name Franz Josef Strauß (Strauss: engl. bouquet like flowers - but the germans say ostrich) He gave the GDR a credit.
It let's you appreciate the translation from the history videos even more.
The only country that was so disrespectful for the great Laurel and Hardy that they called them "Fat and Stupid".
@@llothar68in Germany they are called Dick und Doof
@@phillips43 That's what he said. Only Germany did that and he thinks it's disrespectful to the artists, which I do agree on. At least we kept their original names in the cartoon series.
Reiner Calmund is a former football executive. He maintained an image as a 'gentle giant'. The joke is about him being really fat at that time (even he stopped gaining weight at some point). He lost a lot of weight since then though.
Pegida (patriotic europeans against the islamisation of the west) is a far right wing movement that formed in 2014. They demonstrated mostly against syrian refugees and they hold their demonstrations on mondays, like the people did in 1989 in the DDR (GDR), as well as trying to reclaim their famous 'wir sind das Volk' (we are the people) slogan.
Pegida is a right wing movement we don't have anything far right in the western world ATM 😅 (edit who has anything to say or is organized)
@asddasdasdasdadsa Oh there's definitely organised far right groups, sweetie😢
@@annnee6818 no they are not or they're so tiny nobody heared of them, the people who are called far right today are not far left that's all. Leader of Italy somehow far right never sad anything or did anything far right AFD pretty similar pegida another example if you can show the the organized mop who hunts foreigners we can talk about far right the closest we came to that was probably the NSU and that's again over 15 years ago and where 3 people.
@@annnee6818 you are called far right if you are against fascism today so pls take a break, maybe we can cound Jehovah's Witnesses, or scientology but I would count them into religious fanatics and not really political. And yeah we have a few neo Nazis but they aren't organized and are more or less right wing punks who are to stupid to think (calling themself after a far left movement and being far right is also quit ironic isn't it)
@@asddasdasdasdadsa How about the "Reichsbürger" organization? The "Azov Battalion", huge organizations of european Neo-nazis, there several different european magazines on the German VS watchlist (constitutional police) to NOT call them "far right" is absolutely ridiculous! What you may be mistaking is that we have little to no "LEFT politics" in europe anymore even the most stereotypical "left-parties" are dumb enough to mistake "liberalism" for "political left" CDU was once supposed to be a "Party of the middle" their politics are now something easily considered "right-winged" in weimar republic! "Far right" doesn't necessarily mean "they want to kill and mass murder foreigners" its a political position of discrimination against certain groups in society... in that respect you could say most parties in germany are in some way "far right" after all they almost all unitarily "discriminate against the general middle and lower economic classes through their finacial and social politics"....
Sigmar Gabriel is a former german politician and he ist not skinny at all. Volkers sentence "Früher waren 'Dick und Doof' mal zwei" roughly translates to "In the past, Stan and Ollie were two different people" 'Dick und Doof' (Fat and stupid) was the german name for the iconic comedy duo and both adjectives seem to fit quite well for Mr. Gabriel. Also 'einschleimen' means something like 'boot licking' or 'brownnosing'.
I'm impressed how well you handled that horrific (auto-)translation. So much context and coherence got lost on the way. And that doesn't even include the things you can't really translate to begin with ... like the "book someone ought to write", which refers to a book called "Deutschland schafft sich ab" (Germany abolishes itself) by Thilo Sarrazin, that dealt with migration and asylum and has sparked massive controversy.
Ich bin wirklich beeindruckt, wie schnell alle Unklarheiten und Fragen von den Zuschauern hier beantwortet werden. 👍
Cesspool was a wordplay. In german it's "Jauchegrube" and in german television there was a political talkshow every sunday evening, moderated by Günter Jauch.
So: Jauch's talkshow = JAUCHegrube = cesspool.
I am from Germany and agree with every word he say. Watched him live two times. Another Satire-Guy you have to know is Georg Schramm. He is a genius.
Urban Priol is good too
What I like about Volker Pispers is that he can explain complex things in a simple way. Well, he was a teacher - and not a bad one I guess.
What I like about you is your critical, open mind, your genuine appearence and your accent ;)
Go ahead!
WestLB is the 'Landesbank Nordrhein-Westfalen', the head bank of the local savings banks of that province. They are infamous for being the first german Bad Bank after several bad business decisions regarding stock trading and dabbling in US subprime lending resulting in having to transfer assets worth 85 Bn. Euros to a winding up agency.
An interesting sidenote: CDU chairperson Friedrich Merz got paid 5000 Euros a day to facilitate the sale of the WestLB (without success).
Volker Pisper is the best. Too bad he stopped :/ Much love from Germany for your reactions to him
Leider, ich hatte mich auch scho auf seine finale Tour nach Corona gefreut.
hats off sir, making sense of most of it with THAT translation at that speed. i´m in awe!
Volker Pispers constantly switches between irony and bitter truth, back and forth. It's really not easy to understand, especially when reading only the English translation. Therefore, great video!
10:10 ...lost in translation... Stan & Ollie / Laurel and Hardy... in german "Dick und Doof" (the fat and the stupid). Sigmar Gabriel, former vice chancellor, is a combination of those.
To fully understand and appreciate Pisper's humor you need to know a lot of German history, culture, politics, and language.
Countless clever allusions throughout.
It's absolutely brilliant.
Georg Schramm is probably the best cabaret performer we ever had and ever will have had. His retirement is a national tragedy.😢
Georg was the best!
But i think that Volker was much more funny and Schramm plaied roles.
Indeed. Since he played roles and did not break characters, he really hit the tragedy behind some politics. His impersonation of a retired SPD voter, who always believed in the right cause and just wants to afford some ham on his bread after a long life of work, is still heartbreaking for me.
yes. but maybe to complicated for non germans
Word
Reiner Calmund used to be an (overweight) football executive in Germany.
He is retired now but when he was still active he was regularly mocked for his weight problems in an ironic way.
I guess the reason is that he was never offended by any of that, so it was a low-risk-metaphor. ;)
Nowadays this doesn't work anymore as he got a stomach reduction surgery in 2020 and since lost half of his weight (used to be 180kg).
If you google his name (as spelled in my comment), you should still be able to find pictures of him "in his full glory".
PEGIDA (unironically a short form for Patriotische Europäer Gegen die Islamisierung Des Abendlandes, translating to patriotic europeans against the islamization of the western world)
is a right wing populist movement that organizes weekly demonstrations especially in eastern Germany.
Regarding the former GDR as West Germanys low wage sector: It's of course nothing that historians would say like that but it's true that labor costs were a lot lower in eastern Germany and a lot of exports from eastern Germany went into the west, so as a metaphor to make a point this definitely works, even though you shouldn't take that comparison at face value. The principle applies but it's over-exaggerated (which is the intention of his program).
I personally agree with most of Volker Pispers points. He has really well developed points and it's fun AND inspiring to listen to his takes on history and politics.
Regarding similar artists from Germany I'd recommend Hagen Rether and the Kabarett-Show "Die Anstalt".
Your sense of ‚fun‘ has masochistic tendencies…😅
I like Volker Pispers, but honestly just watching this particular program pop up while having to think about every Euro I spend was a bit like looking in the mirror after a night out!
You know it‘s your own fault, and it was fun while it lasted, ….but he will make you suffer for it!
ARGE is short for Arbeitsgemeinschaft (literally translated into working group)
It was also our Federal Employment Agency that tried to get people into jobs again and paid welfare to those, that hadnt been employed for a long time.
Wasting money, on the useless as I call it, I mean it's still better than what we do in Sweden, have you heard about 40 hour work weeks unpaid? We call it, work-life experience training. Well technically we call it work market training... Government pays 5'000SEK per month to a workplace, to have an inexperienced person work at the workplace for free.
The good old phrase Work or Die, was a good thing in the past, people who didn't want to starve to death, went out looking for work, those who got work lived, and those who didn't well they became the work of the gravedigger, nowadays Work or Die is quite literally you Work for this company for free, or we'll remove your welfare, which isn't enough to keep you alive in the first place either.
@@livedandletdie In the "good old day" someone would have hit you right in the face for this bs.
Hagen Rether is another wonderful Karbaret Artist.
Volker is really good. You can even watch 25 years old stuff of him and it is still actual
does this mean that he is good or that we are fkin bad?
@@sockosophie3132 I suppose both 😂
It is not "actual" (which is a "false friend" meaning "tatsächlich"), but you certainly mean that his old stuff is still *applicable* ("zutreffend"), *valid* ("gültig") or *current* ("aktuell"). 😉
@@jawosammadennhier7062 👍
But that makes me sad, cause it looks like we have learned nothing and still the same problems for years…
Oh his points are still as valid today, maybe even more, than back in the days when he was still active.
Yes he brings facts and saying it, as if they are common sense, obvious for everybody who wants to see. He doesnt play characters, like the georgeous Georg Schramm did, Volker Pispers is pure satire like a friend would use.
👍Good catch this piece
Hagen Rether "Liebe" is one of the best programs. Pispers, Schramm and Rether are the holy trinity!
I love Volker Pispers 😂
One of the greatest german cabarettist ever 💪🏼
It's such a big pity he retired 😢
I'm from Germany and I agree to every word Pispers says.
He was the best 🫶🏼
Hello friend.
Its a pleasure to see you watching Volker Pispers classics on youtube.
I'm from Germany and a big Pispers fan.
He's a comedy legend and comes from my area here as well (Düsseldorf).
Can't await see you watching the next parts from Pispers.
Until 2010, a job center was called "ARGE" (Arbeitsgemeinschaft SGB II). The Federal Employment Agency is responsible for the federal funds, such as funds for placement in work and standard benefits, in a joint facility.
Now it is simply JOB CENTER, and it handles as well domestic town welfare help in communes.
Unfortunately the subtitles are horrible!! I am impressed you can understand anything at all. Thank you for soldigering through tho, love your reactions to Volker and the Heute Show
TILL REINERS is another satire artist I would recommend to you, since you asked wether there were others in the like of Volker Pisper´s style. He is equally sharp and brilliant in describing the weirdness of circumstands rather then roasting single people. He is a frequent guest of the "Anstalt" and "Heute Show" which you both reacted to before, and hosts his own satire show now called "Till Reiners Happy Hour", but I mostly enjoyed his solistic stand-up performances - to be found on youtube...
I'd also suggest Moritz Neumeier - though is is rather far left and not completely political - but good satire anyway.
All recent and former hosts of the "Anstalt" - namely MAX UTHOFF, KLAUS VON WAGNER as well as URBAN PRIOL and ERWIN PELZIG respectively provided really strong and highly political solistic programs.
The latter ones in strong local accents (might eigther increase the difficulty of translation or increase the joy :) )
I am from Germany. Pispers is the best !
I'm from germany and a totaly agree with his points!
He is a legend!
Another show which has some good points is Extra3 pretty close to the Heute Show.
Hey, first thank you for all your reactions! As a German it's interesting to see and hear a Brit (whose humour/sarcasm I always admired) react to german satire artists. I feel the humour in the UK is more about a general 'sarcasm' about situations in life and in Germany it's much more political (don't know why, maybe because of the political past?)
& btw: Volker Pispers is one of a kind, the kind of way he speaks and brings his arguments to the point is very special and I think the nearest you get to his way are the known formats 'HeuteShow/DieAnstalt/Extra3' ☺️
Sadly he isn't active anymore, we need more of him! Especially in this times 🥲
You need see / hear Hagen Rether .. it's also older but awesome
And Georg Schramm is the Grandmaster of all who you are loving
I have been on Volkers farewell tour and most of the time the laugter got stuck in my throat. It is all too close to the truth. And although there are alternatives like "Die Anstalt" he is dearly missed.
Those subtitles are insane :D i wish more german comedians would do stand up or shows in english. Even in Germany there is a market for english comedy, humor and food are universal languages
Volker Pispers is the best one in germany never saw anyone who talks like him very direkt and no fear
Volker always gets to the point. Also very good is the German satirical show 'Die Anstalt'. They show the flaws in our country and the political parties very vividly.
Volker Pispers was always spot on with everything he spoke about.
WestLB AG was an internationally active Landesbank headquartered in Düsseldorf, which was allowed to conduct all banking business as a credit institution. It also acted as the giro center for the savings banks and the principal bank of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
WestLB was split into three parts on June 30, 2012, following some financial inconsistencies.
I don't always agree with him but seriously he's absolutely brilliant.
Political cabaret is actually a very particular cultural gem in Germany.
you make great videos , love to watch your content
Know you only over the Pisper Reaction Videos. And as an leftist german i am happy to see when others explore the german "Kabarett". I can warmly recommend you "Die Anstalt". A political satiric Show with very precise analytics, and always with a fact check to support the arguments they bring.
Wow, that you found Volker Pispers! Respect! This cabaret artist really is the crème de la crème of German political cabaret. I've also learned a few things with him that you'd rather suppress. It's a pity that he has retired, but I understand when you spend years "educating" people and nothing changes.
15:00 The shelf was named 'billy'. It is like the word 'billig' (cheap), but the letter 'ig' was mixed together into a 'y'. Or the 'g' was missing, just like the screws or the holes. ^^
as german history geek from austria, i can say at least from my point view his arguments are valid.
In the early 80s, Volker Pispers was a teacher at my school. I didn't take any lessons from him myself, but I often saw him in the schoolyard. He was popular, but also a little strict. I think he's great as a comedian, but unfortunately he doesn't do that anymore.
Hi, Mert!
Thank you so much for these videos about Volker Pispers (a bloody genius, incredible talent for the right use of our german language). You understand him very well, despite the awful subtitles. And you show a great amount of genuine interest, props for that!
Allow me a question, please: do you have turkish or maybe albanian ancestors? Beacuse your name is a turkish one, I have a cousin with the same name :)
Keep this legend alive!
Many thanks for spending that much time and effort to understand German humor, much appreciated! Great contribution to overcome stereotypes! 👍
16:10 Arge is the abriviation of Arbeitsgemeinschaft (working partnership). East Germany was like 'Made in China' of the past, and West Germany was buying and consuming the products
It's all true. I'm an old West Berliner. I was 9 years old when the Berlin Wall was built. In 1980 I married a woman who lives in East Berlin. It was complicated because her uncle was the first refugee in Berlin-Hafen to be shot in 1961.
I know things made in the east were sold in the west. Things that weren't quite right were sold to the Easterners at exorbitant prices - example: howling record players, broken washing machines - imprisoned Discidents were also sold to the West.
The point of the lottery comparison is not the luck aspect. It's the fact that you need a certain amount of people not profiting to make one profiting big time. That's the point. Workers are not there to win, they are there to pay for the winners.
pretty much like your dialect. the rollin R absolutely makes it! Nice evening bro
Pispers is one of the best cabaret artist in Germany. This one you can watch nonstop!
Pispers : BEST man !
..since decades he is talking truth .
I once saw a picture of the wall of a public toilet where someone had written "we buy things we don't need, with money we don't have to impress people we don't like." and someone else had written underneath "we write words on toilet walls that aren't our's to impress people we don't know" or something along those lines. I think I don't remember the answer correctly... yea, the walls of public toilets, the original social media.
and the german author and .. Kleinkünstler (also by now, film director and who knows what else he's up to) Mark Uwe Kling, takes this idea one step further in his books (Quality land). and makes the neo liberals (as a political party) register as an official church (like the catholic or protestant church in germany). in his books the neo liberals claim it was just to save taxes.. but it's really just being honest.
The electric irons for ironing sold at the Quelle Versand which was German Amazon sold for 19.90 Deutschmark have been all produced in either East Germany or other east European Countries..
great that you get much information out of this terrible translation.. this lecture from volker is my fav
Nice reactions, for me it´s a refresh.
Someone i can highly recommend is Georg Schramm. If you like Volker i will say it´s a must see!
Another good guy but also one of the broken ones. Schramm left the cabaret with the same reason as Pispers left. Both are tired of explaining basic knowledge but without subsequent actions from the audience.
I can't wait for the translation of Georg Schramm 🙂
I think comedians who compare to Volker would be Urban Priol and Georg Schramm. Dieter Hildebrandt too, but he passed away long ago. But he was great.
Priol is boring!
The capitalism lottery comparison was not about capitalist success depending on luck, it was about everybody being able to reach top 10 percent of society, but not all together can be top 10 percent of society. You can become part of the top 10 percent of society, because 90 percent won't.
Whole point of capitalism is to enmass wealth in the hand of very few people. It is overall the same thing as feudalism, just not about estate but machines.
„Reicher Mann und armer Mann standen da und sah’n sich an, und der Arme sagte bleich: ‚Wär ich nicht arm wärst du nicht reich.’“ (Bertolt Brecht)
// Rich man, poor man faced each other in a van.
Said the poor man with a twitch:
Were I not poor, you wouldn't be rich.
Anyone not everyone!
@@Cleeves358 thx, but I haven't used the word "everyone", so anybody instead of everybody as well? I thought "every-" is used for defined group of people and "any-" for undefined.
@@Nils.Minimalist Brecht, die Wortgewalt.
I discovered Volker Pispers in 2010 when I was 16. It was an eye opener. I went from totally uninteressted in politics and history to full on economy nerd and liberal communistic know it all. It was great. I learned so much. Now I'm much more nuanced in my opinions but I still think that Volker Pispers is mostly right.
Oh Gott, Du glaubst tatsächlich, Systemkritik wäre rechts???? Pispers würde Dir was husten! Bitte informier Dich! Bitte, bitte, bitte!
@@thomaskoke7139 You misunderstood that. I meant "right" in the meaning of "richtig" or "correct". Aber bitte überdenk du doch mal, ob dein Kommentar der richtige Weg wäre, jemanden wirklich dazu zu bringen, sich zu informieren, wenn er eine solche Überzeugung hätte, wie du sie mir unterstellt hast. Be curiuos, not judgemental!
Rainer Calmund and PEGIDA have already been described very well in another comment. Sigmar Gabriel is a former Economics Minister. He made some difficult testimonies and allowed Germany's largest robotics company (Kuka) to be sold to China.
If you are looking for a satirist who is also very good, take a look at Thorsten Sträter's videos. Go in a similar direction.
The East of Germany (GDR/DDR) could not keep up with the economic growth supported by the USA, for they were also partially exploited by the UDSSR. They tried to better their economy with production for e.g. IKEA. The currency and the production costs were lower than in West Germany. Therefore students and people with lower wages from the West could afford products from the GDR/DDR easier. It was like a transfer of wealth that continued even after the Fall of the Berlin Wall by western Companies and Investors (from GER West and International) buying up Eastern German companies, exploiting them and letting them die.
This problem is to be seen from multiple perspectives, for it is a very complex situation, but I think that example can give an easy to understand impression.
17:47 I think the point Volker wants to make by comparing capitalism to the lottery is not that it is based on luck. He said that in the lottery, everyone can become a millionare, but not all (at the same time). So even though in capitalism, everyone has the chance to succeed, it is impossible for all people to be successful at the same time and there will always be the losers of capitalism who do much work and get few money.
i like your reaction and your conclusions very much. Do more of Volker Pispers and maybe of Hagen Rether he is a bit like Volker. Props😊
Better translation of the last point:
In capitalism anybody can become rich. But not everybody.
Just yesterday we discovered, that Volker lives in the same city as us, 5 km away from us. Thats awesome - I got actually a chance to run into him :D
Oh, there are so many. Political satire/cabaret has a long tradition in Germany. Long before WW2. But it really started to shine in the 1950s and 1960s. One of the fathers of modern political cabaret was the fantastic Dieter Hildebrandt and those around him: Gerhard Polt, Werner Schneyder, Hans-Dieter Hüsch. Other great names were/are Henning Venske, Jochen Busse, Rainer Basedow, Hans Scheibner. From the generation of Volker Pispers there are Urban Priol, Jochen Malmsheimer, Georg Schramm. And then there are the younger ones: Hagen Rether, Kai Magnus Sting, Christoph Sieber, Max Uthoff, Claus von Wagner and Tobias Mann.
There is just one thing to consider: Real political satirists do not like to be named in the same breath with comedians.
I am from germany and I can jsut say he is about 100% right with everything. And what he says is hard to hear but its just the truth. About the coruption in Germany as well as what stupid ideas are getting around in our country.
I think introducing the concept of lottery is not so much the notion of luck, as it is the fact, that in order for a few people to get rich you have to have a massive base underneath to get poor.
no comedian talked about the wall like he did ! and it was exactly like he described it !
Einschleimen means to suck up to someone. In this context it refers to Sigmar Gabriels quote that you have to take right wing protesters seriously. V. Pispers thinks that Gabriel said that to suck up to them to get their votes potentially.
Sigmar Gabriel was secretary and vice-president of germany. "Einschleimen" means kissing ass or sucking up. Gabriel changed his views and friends quite a lot for his own career and for his political party. As well as Reiner Calmund he was quite a large person for some time.
WestLB was a bank in west germany for medium to large companies. After the reunion they tried the same strategy in what used to be east-germany. But the companies build in the centrally planned economy of east-germany did not scale as expected. In 2012 the bank was closed and sold.
OMG, the subtitles are like translated from german to hindi than to maori, japanese, french, back to german and then to english.
okay, it's quite impressive how much you were able to decipher context through those terrible subtitles. It's auto-translated I'm assuming; I hope there are better versions somewhere.
As a german i agree to all what Pispers is saying. Everything's absolutly true. He's genius!
13:08 As many others have already said: I would recommend Georg Schramm as another critical voice in the face of capitalism. The only thing is: He often acted out his parts as some character with a German dialect. So I assume that well written (!) subtitles would be good in his case.
On the topic of East-West Germans Olaf Schubert is very good cabaret artist to watch - even a must watch. He dresses as a "stereotypical" east german (traditionally playing an east-german), always wearing an old/retro green/yellow slipover/ sleeveless pullover. He is often part of "heute show" as the "quota-east-german", presenting among other things an "east-german" perspective on topics. Unfortunately there is no video of him online, that I know of, with english subtitles. So you probably, sadly, can't understand any of them. Yet, he stays a good recommendation.
Es ist zu niedlich 😂 , er versteht nicht alles , manche Begriffe sind wahrscheinlich schlecht zu übersetzen 😂, ich schau in sein Gesicht und muss schmunzeln 😊
That is by far the worst translation i´ve ever read. Impressive that you got so much information out of it. 👍🏻 Greetings from Austria. 🇵🇪
Greetings back from Germany 🇧🇪
Einschleimen means to say things, that you don't actually believe in (or to exaggerate) just to make someone happy for that both share beliefs
Einschleimen = to blow smoke up your ass, brownnosing
As you asked about it: Rainer Calmund is a former German football manager. He was very famous for being tall, if not suffering from obesity. Hence Volker's remark to endless growth
You ask for more cabaretists like Volker: Hagen Rether.
Sigmar Gabriel is the former leader of the SPD, with a very imposing 'stature'. And 'Dick & Doof' (fat & stupid) are the monikers used for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in Germany.
and to add to it, because the subtitles were really off here: Pispers said that “Dick und Doof”/“Fat and Stupid” (as in Hardy and Laurel) used to be two persons, whereas Sigmar Gabriel combines the two into one… essentially is is fat AND stupid…
...zur Urne schleppen... refers to old people (drag to the urn)
He meant "Wahlurne" - "ballot box".
@@alexandergrundt6261 *grinst* ... ähm stimmt natürlich, sch** kontextgebundene assoziation...- correct, sry.
If you want to know about another good satire show: I can highly recommend "Die Anstalt", I think you actually already watched a short video from this show. They release a new episode each month. But I'm not sure, if these episodes are availabe with english subtitles :/
Thx for the content, I like it, when you repaid the dialoge for us once more in english, so I learn also english better to understand.
I like your stuff, keep on. If you are well familiary to the Germans, Austria would be a challenge. Regards from Vienna! 🧐
the subs are terrible but you still managed to filter out the meaning quite well, good job.
when you ask for more like him, Georg Schramm or Urban Priol are the two names i would recommend.
I am German and no he ist the best, and i total agree with him. ❤
17:18 The translation software also didn't get the difference between "alle" and "jeder" :D In that context it would be like "everyone can play the lottery, but not every single one can win". There were more some confusing tranlations
Thank you for upload and nice reactions. In my opinion, do not misunderstand Volker Pispers. He do not make comedy, satire nor cabaret. It is an accusation as an humanist , as an human being. We need to make the next step of evolution. Or some people of the world realize very soon, that the world we are living in is just a dream. The reality will fight back one day,
Volker Pispers is a genius. It's such a shame her has stopped performing.
i definitly agree with the piont of win win win situation. pisper is insane good
Rainer Calmund is the Ex financial Manager of Bayer Leverkusen FC.His weight was more than 160 kg…
"Einschleimen" means "kissing up" or "sucking up". The "cesspool" joke is a wordplay on Günther Jauch, a famous TV host, who at that time hosted a talk show on Das Erste, with "Jauch" being similar to "Jauche" which means as much as sewage. And "the first programming" is the channel Das Erste, which literally just means "the first" since it was the first federal TV broadcasting company. Similar to the BBC it's a publicly owned broadcaster and not in private hands.
The "fat and stupid" joke is a play on the German name for Laurel and Hardy, an American-British comedy duo out of the silent film era that still have a relatively large fan base in Germany. The German title of the duo was "Dick und Doof" which means "fat and stupid". Generally speaking, these subtitles are a bit subpar. It's often enough just autogenerated based on the exact meaning of a word, not the contextual meaning within a phrase or sentence. And sometimes words just weren't translated at all, like "einschleimen" or later "Walt" which means "forrest" and wasn't even written correctly in German since we write it we a "d" at the end, not a "t".
Furthermore, Sigmar Gabriel at the time was the federal chair of the SPD, the German equivalent to the Labour Party in the UK. In that position, Gabriel also served as Vice Chancellor under Merkel from 2013 till 2018. For most of that time, and I think also while this was recorded, he was also the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs. Pegida was a far-right protest movement in Dresden that kinda fuctioned as a base for the rise of the AfD at the time. The AfD being Germany's far-right political party.
13:35 "Bouquet" is another sign that this was not translated by a human. While the German word "Strauß" can be a short form for "Blumenstrauß" which means "bouquet", in this case this is not what it means. Strauß was the last name of right-wing politician Franz-Josef Strauß, to this day revereed by the conservative CSU in Bavaria and made infamous through the Spiegel-Affaire in 1962, when he used his position as Federal Defence Minister to order a raid on the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel after a critical article about the battle readiness of the Bundeswehr (German military) had been published there. This was a major attack on the freedom of the press and Strauß had to leave but he did return into government. He not only did become Federal Finance Minister four years later, he was the Minister President (basically governor) of Bavaria from 1978 to 1988. In that position he was essential in getting the Western German federal government to agree to give the Eastern German government a major loan in the sum of billions back in 1982/83.
17:18 "Everyone and everyone" is another really bad translation. Better would be "anyone and everyone".
'ZDF - Die Anstalt' has a similar political satire program on TH-cam. Both Volker and 'die Anstalt' (the asylum/ the institution) are excellent.
Hey Mert If you want to, I can upload the next parts for you with better translation.
Wie macht man das? Ich hab schon immer mal Untertitel für Videos machen wollen…?