Loriot

Bernhard-Viktor Christoph-Carl von Bülow (12 November 1923 – 22 August 2011), known as Vicco von Bülow or Loriot , was a German comedian, humorist, cartoonist, film director, actor and writer. As an artist, he was almost exclusively known under his pen name Loriot, which is the French term for the bird oriole depicted as a crest in the coat of arms of the Bülow family.

He was best known for his cartoons, the sketches from his 1976 television series Loriot, alongside Evelyn Hamann, and his two movies, Ödipussi (1988) and Pappa Ante Portas (1991).

On the television series Unsere Besten (Our Best), Loriot was ranked the 54th best German ever. In a special comedy episode of Unsere Besten, he was ranked as the most famous German comedian ever.

Early and personal life Vicco von Bülow was born in Brandenburg an der Havel in Prussia, today Brandenburg, in modern north-eastern Germany. The von Bülow family belongs to German aristocracy. His parents, Johann-Albrecht Wilhelm von Bülow (1899–1972) and Charlotte (née von Roeder, 1899–1929), separated soon after he was born, and his mother died when he was six. Von Bülow and his brother grew up in Berlin with their grandmother.

Von Bülow was still in school when World War II started. After graduating early from secondary school, he followed the family's tradition and became a military officer. He was deployed to the Eastern Front for three years, serving as of Panzergrenadierregiment 3

Von Bülow completed his Abitur in 1946. In 1951 he married Romi Schlumbom (1929–2024), with whom he had two daughters.

Artistic career

Von Bülow's talent for drawing was eminent already during his school years. After the war he studied graphic design and painting at the Landeskunstschule in Hamburg. From 1950 onwards, he published cartoons under the pseudonym "Loriot", derived from the French word for oriole, his family's heraldic animal.

Loriot was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Wuppertal in 2001. He is honorary citizen of his hometown of Brandenburg an der Havel and his chosen home of Münsing from 1993 until his death. Furthermore, Loriot was a member of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste since that same year and of the Berlin Academy of Arts since 1997. He became honorary professor of theatrical arts at the Berlin University of the Arts in June 2003. He received numerous awards for his performance in TV, movies and other disciplines. He died in Ammerland at Lake Starnberg of old age.

Characteristics of his work

His cartoons hinged on the contrast between the presented situation, the dignity displayed by his typically big nosed characters and the picture's caption. Inevitably one of these elements gets out of line, for example, when he combines the caption "We demand equal treatment of men and women, even if the suckling baby might temporarily lose weight." with the picture of a bulbous-nosed man breast-feeding a baby in a distinguished manner. The topics of his cartoons were mainly drawn from everyday life, scenes of the family and middle-class society. The same contrast between absurd situation and dignified behaviour of his characters could be seen in his various sketches and films.

Obituary notice from the German division of the Art Directors Club, of which he was an honorary member, after his death. The German text means "Dear God, have fun!"

In the sketch "Zimmerverwüstung/Das schiefe Bild" (room destruction/the crooked painting) from the Loriot TV series of 1976, a maid offers a distinguished looking official – played by Loriot – who has just arrived on a house call a place in a finely furnished salon for a moment in order to let the house owners know. The person waiting looks at the furnishings from an armchair for a while. He then notices that a small oil painting hangs crooked. When he tries to correct this, he touches the adjacent painting which slides out of its frame. At nearly the same time, he accidentally throws something down from a table underneath the paintings. While reaching for it, he has to move a couch, the other end of which pushes a small table which tilts, and further items fall to the floor. In a slow chain reaction, every one of his attempts to bring things in order causes further and greater disorder in the room, including whole wall shelves breaking down. His relentless efforts to repair the damage cause further damage and ultimately result in the nearly complete devastation of the salon. Finally, the maid returns, and the last camera position is behind her who stands in the opened door, looking on the still intact fraction of the room. The official walks towards her and points in the direction of the painting, with an undertone of significance telling her: "The painting hangs crooked!" (German: "Das Bild hängt schief!").

What makes the above sketch typical for Loriot is not only the complete absurdity of the whole scene including the end, but that the character, while acting extremely clumsily, never loses his temper and keeps his dignity during the evolving catastrophe. The final remark is even spoken in an incidental manner, such as if the painting would indeed be the only problem in the room, baffling the viewer (while the reaction of the maid is not shown).

Loriot's enormous popularity, his accurate language, and high-brow sense of comedy led to the adoption of a large number of phrases and inventions from the series' sketches into German common knowledge and everyday speech. Among these are certainly the "yodeling diploma", a sentence like "With that," (said diploma) "you have something of your own!", "the "stone louse", but also remarks like, "Please ... don't talk right now.", "There used to be more tinsel!", "Look, a piano! A piano, a piano!" or the laconic, hardly translatable "Ach!?" ("Oh, is it?").

Lawsuit of his daughter against the Wikimedia Foundation

Pictures showing Loriot's signature and German semi-postal stamps with topics of Loriot's work that illustrated Loriot's entry in the German-language Wikipedia were removed by the Wikimedia Foundation on 8 November 2011. This action was prompted by an interim order forbidding Wikimedia to use these images, that had been initiated by an heiress, daughter Susanne von Bülow, at the Landgericht Berlin on 6 October 2011 after an email from the heiress requesting their removal had not been answered. Wikimedia had to pay the cost of the legal proceedings.

Accolades and awards (selection)

1943: Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class 1968 & 1973: Adolf Grimme Award in silver 1973: Goldene Europa 1974: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1974: Karl-Valentin Medal 1978: Goldene Kamera 1980: Bavarian Order of Merit 1985: Kassel Literary Prize 1988 & 1993: Bambi 1990: Order of Merit of Berlin 1993: Membership in the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste 1993: Honorary citizenship of his native home town of Brandenburg an der Havel and his chosen home town of Münsing 1995: Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art 1997: Membership in the Academy of Arts, Berlin 1998: Great Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany 2001: Honorary degree from the University of Wuppertal 2003: Honorary professorship at the Berlin University of the Arts 2007: German Comedy Awards Honorary Award 2007: Wilhelm Busch Prize 2009: Honorary Award of the Deutsche Filmakademie 2009: Walk of Fame of Cabaret 2010: Honorary membership in the German Sociological Association 2011: Charity stamps of four well-known Loriot cartoons 2015: Hörzu readers' award for "greatest TV legend"

Legacy 2023/2024 Exhibition Loriot 100, Caricatura Museum Frankfurt