RINGELNATZ, JOACHIM

Joachim Ringelnatz “Hans Gustav Bötticher” (August 7, 1883 Wurzen, Germany – November 17, 1934 Berlin, Germany) was a writer, comedian and painter who is best known for poems to the artificial figure Tripe Daddeldu.
Ringelnatz was his pen name witch is usually explained as a dialect expression for an animal, possibly a variant of Ringelnatter (German for Grass Snake).

He was a sailor in his youth and spent the first World War in the Navy on a minesweeper. In the 1920s and 1930s, he worked as a cabaret artist (satirical stand-up comedian).

He is best known for his poems, his most popular creation is the anarchic sailor Kuddel Daddeldu with his drunken antics and disdain for authority.

In his final thirteen years Ringelnatz was a dedicated and prolific visual artist.

In 1933, he was banned by the Nazi government as a “degenerate artist” The Nazis give Ringelnatz a ban on stage performance and most of his books and artworks were confiscated or burned, but over 200 paintings and drawings survived.
Ringelnatz and his wife were impoverished because the stage performances had been the couple’s main source of income.
A short time later he got ill with tuberculosis and died 1934.