Table of Contents
Dresden. The illustrators see themselves as their target group. “And when someone else laughs at our jokes, it’s even nicer,” says Dominik Bauer. He is the B in the signature of H&B and the copywriter. Elias Hauck, the draftsman, belongs to the H.
Read more after the ad
Read more after the ad
Together, the caricature duo are known as the “Kessler twins of drawn jokes”. In any case, the Munich cabaret artist Hannes Ringlstetter introduced her once and neither Hauck nor Bauer objected. They both come from Alzenau near Großkrotzenburg, in the Aschaffenburg district, in the Lower Franconia administrative region, 461 kilometers from Dresden.
In 1978 they saw the light of the Free State of Bavaria in the lower Kahlgrund at the foot of a castle, Elias Hauck in the star sign of Aries and Dominik Bauer in the star sign of Taurus. A horned community who discovered during their school days at the Spessart-Gymnasium in their hometown in the ancient Greek class that they had the same sense of humor. “We really like to laugh,” says Elias Hauck. Laughter is the goal of their daily joke work. “And money,” says Dominik Bauer and laughs.
You do what you can: nothing
Book title by Hauck & Bauer
Read more after the ad
Read more after the ad
After successfully leaving Alzenau to further their education, the two school friends met again in Berlin and in 2002 sat in Charlottenburg having a beer in the idyllic pub “Zwiebelfisch”. One talked funny things, the other drew strange figures. That was enough to think about a joint job creation measure. “I was happy to move on to the phase of supervised drawing,” says Elias Hauck. Dominik Bauer says that to this day he is happy that someone is also imagining his strange thoughts.
One day in 2003 they sent a few drawn jokes to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. There was no probationary period. “We just haven’t stopped sending strips,” says Bauer. The FAZ editorial team found this funny, and so the satirical couple continues to deliver their sometimes silly, occasionally malicious, often laconic sketches of the zeitgeist. The FAZ comic is called “On the Edge of Society”, which has to do with its placement on the outer side of the newspaper, but of course above all with the topics that they publish there. The compassionate look at the losers in everyday life is part of her artistic core competence, which is finding more and more fans.
“In cahoots with the state”: The caricature by Hauck & Bauer wins first prize at the German Cartoon Prize 2024.
Source: Hauck & Bauer / SZ
They also publish their picture stories in Titanic, Eulenspiegel, Cicero and on Spiegel Online. In recent years there have been several exhibitions and books such as “You do what you can: nothing” or “The worst-selling book in the world”. The artists also travel through Germany with a caricature show to satirical readings, letting their funny characters speak as if they were sitting together at a philosophical get-together in the pub around the corner. “It’s easy because sometimes we are the characters ourselves,” says Hauck. They even come to self-discovery, as one of their characters explains in a cartoon: “I have been working in the humor business for 20 years. Now I especially appreciate colleagues for the jokes they don’t make.”
The texting farmer reads a lot, he says. The 46-year-old is always available, even when he is lying on the sofa. He prefers to wander anonymously through crowds of people in his hometown of Frankfurt am Main and listen closely to collect strange quotes for his speech bubbles. Fragments of sentences serve as raw material for punchlines. They then tell each other on paper the limp-looking figures that Hauck draws in Berlin. In the daily back and forth between their homes, the writing and drawing tables, the colleagues work towards the final version of their caricatures.
The winners do not depict a cheap joke, but rather the bitterest reality.
Reasons given by the prize jury
Read more after the ad
Read more after the ad
This was also the case with the picture that they submitted for this year’s motto “Feierabend” for the 25th German Caricature Prize. Actor Tom Pauls, who, in the character of fireman Florian Brenzlich, gave the laudatory speech for the winning caricature in the Dresden Schauspielhaus on Sunday, said with great fun: “This is a fire work, created using pyrotechnics, a kind of remnant. Fire.” The laudator said that, on the one hand, he recognized the positive in the picture, because “the inflamed man seems to be interested in a dialogue. He asks an important question before he lets himself be extinguished.” On the other hand, he humorously criticized the artists who were probably just making fun of the fire brigade operation, because you can’t be in cahoots with the state, after all, it is the state’s cover always far too short. And: “We have become far too used to the idea that there will never be fire again. But that’s all foam and smoke. We have to know how to fire to prevent it.”
The prize jury seriously justified H&B’s victory with the following words, among other things: “The winners are not portraying a cheap joke, but rather the bitterest reality. The cartoon depicts a situation that is especially dangerous for the helper. He probably feels like he has been demoted to an accomplice and is also questioning himself. Here the reversal of the community into a wasteland of suspicion is depicted. When they gain a majority, it’s time for work.”
At the awards ceremony, at which Annamateur presented songs, portrait films were shown, and tuba player Jörg Wachsmut and pianist Masumi Sakagami performed together with Tom Pauls, despite all the joy, there was also a sad moment. The cartoonist Barbara Henniger, born in Dresden on November 9, 1938, and the cartoonist Reiner Schwalme, born in Liegnitz in 1937, announced that they would no longer take part in the competition. There is no lack of desire, no lack of fun, but of strength. They took part in all 25 years of the German Caricature Prize. But at some point it’s time for work. It’s a shame and thank you very much!
2nd place – George Riemann: That’s it!
Source: George Riemann
Second place: George Riemann
George Riemann was born in Seesen in the Harz Mountains in 1961. He published his first cartoon in The New Yorker in 1990, others in The Recorder, later in Carlsen Verlag, Eulenspiegel and Toonpool. The jury said about the caricature: The picture gets to the heart of the hidden longings of those people who think they have gone crazy.
Read more after the ad
Read more after the ad
3rd place – Kai Flemming: Heckler and Koch
What: Kai Flemming
Third place*: Kai Flemming
Kai Flemming was born in 1964, comes from Hamburg and works as an advertising copywriter. He publishes his cartoons in, among others, the Frankfurter Rundschau, New Business Austria, Robb Report, Eulenspiegel, Borsteler Boten and Lappan-Verlag. The jury said about the caricature: This caricature is able to illustrate the madness of the belief in guns without becoming propagandistic.
3rd place – Katharina Greve: Firewall
What: Katharina Greve
Third place*: Katharina Greve
Katharina Greve, born in Hamburg in 1972, lives as a comic artist and author in Berlin. She received numerous awards for her work. The jury said about her caricature: This is the symbol of fatalism. The drawing succinctly depicts two-sided despair, but it is not accepted.
Read more after the ad
Read more after the ad
Newcomer Prize – Jens Eike Krüger: Pig Burial
Source: Jens Eike Krüger
Newcomer Prize: Jens Eike Krüger
Jens Eike Krüger is an author, musician and graphic designer. Since 2015 he has been part of the artistic direction of the performance collective ZOO. The jury said about his picture: A cultivated gallows humor still seems to be the most laughable way to escape pessimism. Krüger brings insight by changing perspective.
* Third place was awarded twice.
Exhibition in the Haus der Presse in Dresden from November 20th, entry 5 euros, reduced or SZ-Card 3 euros. Opening hours and further information: www.deutscherkarikaturenpreis.de
Our author Peter Ufer is co-founder of the German Cartoon Prize and spokesman for the jury.
SZ
What are the key themes represented in the German Cartoon Award-winning cartoons?
1. What is the significance of the cartoon depicted in the German Cartoon Award?
2. Why did Barbara Henniger and Reiner Schwalme decide not to participate in the competition anymore?
3. What do you think is the message behind Kai Flemming’s 3rd place cartoon?
4. How does Katharina Greve’s caricature relate to the theme of fatalism?
5. What perspective change does Jens Eike Krüger make in his winning newcomer caricature?
