Trivia

German comedian, cabaret artiste and writer, the son of a pharmacist. He began his career as a fairytale storyteller in the 1920's. He was a co-founder of the Berliner cabaret 'Die Katakombe' in 1929. Finck came to prominence in the 1930's for brazenly satirizing the Nazi regime on stage. He was eventually imprisoned for six weeks at the Esterwegen concentration camp and only released after his friend, the actress Käthe Dorsch interceded on his behalf with Herman Goering. Finck later enlisted in the Wehrmacht as a private to evade further retribution. He resumed performing in political cabaret and in films after the war, also touring the United States in 1968.

Finck died in Munich, where he is buried in the Waldfriedhof cemetery. The inscription on his tombstone reads: "You are still here and I passed away, soon you are there where I am today.".

Bertolt Brecht wrote the poem Eulenspiegel überlebt den Krieg for Werner Finck.

He extended his topical-satirical work over the border in the 60's and appeared at the New York Barbizon-Plaza theater in 1963 and even made a tournee through the USA in 1968.

In 1950 he established the joke political party of the "Radical Centre" in West Berlin.

He continued his career as a cabaret artist after the war, first as a director of the Zuricher cabaret "Nebelhorn", one year later he founded the cabaret "Mausefalle" in Germany in 1948.

From 1945 to 1949 Finck with Hans Bayer (Thaddäus Troll) issued the journal Das Wespennest ("The Hornets' Nest"), the first German satirical magazine after the war.

Together with artists like Hans Deppe, Rudolf Platte and Robert A. Stemmle he founded the cabaret Die Katakombe with some friends in 1929. Finck acted as conferencier, and the cabaret, became successful because of his critical and subtly impudent remarks against the Nazis, proving to be an early thorn in their side. Finck had an ability to be seemingly lost for words when saying something and the audience, playing along, finished his sentences. He often defied authority by daring Gestapo informers in the audience to write down every word he said. According to an anecdote, Finck once confronted an officer asking with seeming innocence, "Am I talking too fast? Can you follow me or shall I follow you?".

Finck temporarily served as a troop entertainer and later used his World War II exploits in a cabaret programme entitled Der brave Soldat schweigt ("The Good Soldier Shuts Up" - a pun on Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk). He witnessed the German Surrender as a POW of the U.S. Army in Bad Aibling, Bavaria.

The way Finck presented his jokes made it very difficult for authorities to nail him down. His exploits made him a legend in his lifetime, to such an extent that when he introduced himself to British and American journalists after the war, he was met with disbelief as they believed that the "Werner Finck" who joked against the Nazis was a fairy-tale figure.

He was the last one who kept up a political cabaret and practiced quip as resistance. When an arrest threatened again he volunteered for the Wehrmacht and escaped from the arrest.