An exhibition on the role of Jews in the life of the Cologne Carnival is being shown in Cologne

An unexpected exhibition dedicated to the role of Jews in the life of the famous Cologne Carnival is being shown in Cologne. The location of it is also unusual – the NS-DOK center, which studies everyday life under National Socialism. Tells Alexey Mokrousov.

The Cologne carnival is one of the most famous in Germany. Its history goes back to antiquity, and if little is known about bacchanalia and saturnalia in the territory of present-day Cologne, the festive “redoubts” of the 18th century have been described more than once. In its current form, the carnival on the banks of the Rhine has existed for 200 years; hundreds of thousands of spectators come to Maslenitsa to watch it.

The most important role in the history of the carnival is played by various kinds of unions and associations, perhaps the oldest and most famous – “Red Sparks”. There is also a special committee responsible for holding festivities on the streets and in taverns on Fat Tuesday (in France it is known as Mardi Gras) and Ash Wednesday.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Jews played the most important role in the life of the holiday on the banks of the Rhine. They were among the hosts of the evenings and among the organizers, supplied beer and owned fashionable cafes, composed songs that were sung by the whole city, and skits that were remembered for months, and in 1922 they even organized their own “Little Cologne Club”. The exhibition at the NS-DOK center in Cologne, which studies life and everyday life during fascism, tells about their lives. The center itself is located in a former Gestapo building; the former cells are still displayed in the basement.

The exhibition has a name that is not immediately understandable to a foreigner. Nobody has any problems with the subtitle “Jews and Jews at the Cologne Carnival,” but there are difficulties with the main part of the title: in the phrase “Schalom & Alaaf,” the first word hardly needs translation, but alaaf is a rare regionalism. Cologne has its own dialect, alaaf is perceived as “Hello!” and an invitation to drink. The carnival itself opens with the call “Kolle Alaaf!”, which can also be translated as “People of Cologne, let’s have a drink!”

The exhibition tells the history of the carnival over the past 200 years within the framework of a plot of interest to the curators. The main emphasis is on texts and photographs, but there are also objects, videos and even an installation with a kind of card index of 70 of the most prominent representatives of the Jewish diaspora associated with Cologne during the Weimar Republic era. The focus is on the 1920s–1940s, from which we can best see how the process of expulsion and repression, rewriting of the recent past and oblivion took place, how recent comrades turn into hostile creatures for whom neither the state nor many fellow citizens feel the former warmth feelings. Moreover, after the First World War, anti-Semitic sentiments in Germany coexisted with the understanding of the nation as a single whole.

Back in the late 1920s, a two-year-old Jewish girl, Marlis Zilken, was dressed as a “red spark” and became a symbol of the Cologne holiday. But already at the 1934 carnival, a car appeared with a poster depicting a stereotyped Jew with sidelocks, a beard and a caftan, and the inscription: “The last ones to leave.” A photograph of this car is shown at the exhibition, as are sketches of anti-Semitic carnival posters, which at one time were never realized in a large format. Two years later, the carnival participants were already singing a song with an unambiguous refrain: “Hurray, we are getting rid of the Jews, the whole kosher gang is moving to the Promised Land, we are laughing joyfully, because Itzig and Sarah are moving.”

Among the heroes of the exhibition is Hans David Tobar, née Rosenbaum (1888–1956; in 1900 the family took his grandmother’s surname). Actor, writer and cabaretist, he was one of the brightest stars of Cologne culture in the 1920s. Tobar began as a merchant, but even before the First World War he began giving speeches at carnival gatherings and Purim celebrations. These speeches are a traditional part of the holiday; Tobar’s talent was appreciated, and soon he was already a regular at the Red Sparks society, one of the pillars of the Cologne Carnival. After the war – he also served on the Eastern Front in Russia – Tobar became an “honorary senator” of the Red Sparks, and not a single carnival was complete without him until 1933. The name of the public’s favorite was deleted from all programs, as were the names of other singers and cabaretists of Jewish origin. Work from now on was possible only within the framework of the “Cultural Union of German Jews”; the last performance in Germany took place in 1938.

Tobar was lucky: in 1939 he managed to emigrate to America, where he later gave carnival speeches even on Broadway – in literary German, Yiddish and the Cologne dialect. His 90-year-old mother and five brothers and sisters died in ghettos and concentration camps.

Amnesia is often perceived as the main obstacle to historical memory, but sometimes oblivion turns out to be a virtue – if it is associated with the ability to forgive. After everything that happened to the Jews in Germany in general and in Cologne in particular, it was difficult to expect a revival of traditions. But in honor of Tobar, in 2014, a prize was established in the same Cologne; his 88-year-old daughter came to the first presentation. The Jews did not give up, they again organized their carnival club, where “Kolle Alaaf!” is heard again. It’s hard not to join them at least mentally.