The Dolt Laughs: Satirical Publications under Hitler and Honecker

Abstract

A comparison of the humor in Die Brennessel, published in Germany in the 1930s with Eulenspiegel, published in former East Germany in the 1980s, finds that neither magazine published very much that would be funny from a contemporary perspective. The socialist Eulenspiegel came closer to providing humorous insights into the collapsing social and economic system of East Germany and achieved a relatively high circulation — which probably would have been higher if there had been sufficient paper stock.