BERLIN// Germany is mourning the death of its greatest humourist, Vicco von Bülow, who taught the nation to laugh at itself by poking fun at Teutonic traits with TV sketch shows, cartoons and films that, obituary writers claim, will make him as immortal as Goethe.
To many, a German comedian may seem like a contradiction in terms, but von Bülow, whose stage name was "Loriot," refuted the cliché that Germans have no sense of humour.
He died at 87 on Monday in his lakeside home in Bavaria, and Angela Merkel, the chancellor, led an outpouring of tributes to the refined aristocrat who reduced generations to tears of laughter.
"His work will make young people and old laugh for a long time to come - and give insights into the nature of Germans," Mrs Merkel said in a statement. "We will miss Loriot's unique ability to affectionately hold a mirror up to us."
He became a household name in the 1960s and 1970s with TV sketch shows including one featuring a typical German family celebrating Christmas, where the son gets a "Build Your Own Nuclear Power Station" kit which ends up going into meltdown, while the grandfather sits in the corner listening to Prussian marching music.
His characters lampooned the pedantry of the German middle class, summed up in a legendary cartoon in which two intransigent gentlemen sit in a hotel bathtub arguing about a rubber duck.
One of his most famous sketches shows a classroom of middle-aged Germans studying for their 'yodelling diploma.'
"It took Loriot to make the Germans realise that we've got a sense of humour," one of the country's leading newspapers, Süddeutsche Zeitung, wrote in an obituary.
Loriot would probably be amused at the thoroughness with which his compatriots are now dissecting his humour. Some claim that he helped, during the post-war period when Germany was struggling to get back to normal, to rehabilitate the middle classes, which were tainted by their support for Adolf Hitler.
He did so by portraying their orderliness and efficiency in a way that made those foibles strangely endearing.
Many of his characters were authoritarian, fussy, middle-aged men in suits and ties whose desire for order is thwarted by everyday life. In one sketch, he plays a gentleman who inadvertently wrecks a room by trying to straighten a picture on a wall.
He gave the German petite-bourgeoisie a fresh identity by casting a
benevolent spotlight on it," Dr Burkhard Meyer-Sickendiek, a lecturer on German literature and scholar of German humour at Berlin's Free University, told The National.
"He played a very important role with his refined, observational humour that was always polite. The Germans loved him like no other comedian."
Vicco von Bülow was born on November 12, 1923, in the town of Brandenburg near Berlin, to an aristocratic Prussian family that had supplied the Iron Kingdom with military officers for centuries.
His talent for drawing and mimicry became evident at school and he worked as an extra in theatre productions and films until the war.
He was called up to the army in 1941 and spent three years with a Panzer division on the eastern front, rising to the rank of lieutenant and winning the Iron Cross medal.
Asked by Der Spiegel, a news magazine, what was his most striking memory of the war, he said in 2006: "Not the experience itself, but the later shameful realisation of having accepted and come to terms with the horror of war - like the night in the collapsed trench when something in my face interrupted my sleep. It was the hand of a dead man that had stroked me."
Humour, he added, had nothing to do with life experience. "It is a characteristic just like any other thankworthy or regrettable gifts a person is endowed with," he told the magazine.
His humour was, sadly, unique, as many commentators have been pointing out. Even in his 80s, he was unmatched, and came first in a public ranking of favourite German comedians as recently as 2007, one year after he retired from TV work.
The generations of German comedians that have followed never reached his calibre.
"His is a huge loss. Such observational wit is very rare," said Dr Meyer-Sickendiek. "But it's unfair to say humour is underdeveloped in this country. The Germans have done a lot of catching up on humour and Loriot had a lot to do with that. There's almost too much of it now. And they have got better at dealing with sarcasm than they used to be."
But beyond all the analysis, his sketches were simply funny and remain so, even though many of the idiosyncrasies they caricature are no longer so evident.
In one, he declares his love to his girlfriend Hildegard in an Italian restaurant, unaware that he has a little piece of spaghetti on his chin that he inadvertently shifts around his face, to her growing horror.
In another, he is an elderly gentleman who goes to a marriage counsellor with his wife.
When ordered to kiss his wife, he refuses, opting instead to kiss a kissing machine, which he does with a little too much passion.
"Loriot's death was absolutely unnecessary," wrote Spiegel. "He had long since become immortal. And will remain it."
dcrossland@thenational.ae
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
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COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
Company%20Profile
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Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
Specs%3A%202024%20McLaren%20Artura%20Spider
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Power: 220 and 280 horsepower
Torque: 350 and 360Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh136,521 VAT and Dh166,464 VAT
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Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
Jigra
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Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
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Cracks in the Wall
Ben White, Pluto Press
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
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Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
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Women & Power: A Manifesto
Mary Beard
Profile Books and London Review of Books
UAE - India ties
The UAE is India’s third-largest trade partner after the US and China
Annual bilateral trade between India and the UAE has crossed US$ 60 billion
The UAE is the fourth-largest exporter of crude oil for India
Indians comprise the largest community with 3.3 million residents in the UAE
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi first visited the UAE in August 2015
His visit on August 23-24 will be the third in four years
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, visited India in February 2016
Sheikh Mohamed was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations in January 2017
Modi will visit Bahrain on August 24-25
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