Karl Valentin
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Karl Valentin (* 4th June, 1882 in Munich; + 9th February, 1948 in Planegg near Munich); actually Valentin Ludwig Fey, was a Bavarian comedian, author and film producer, who had great influence on German culture.
The humor of his sketches and pieces lies somewhere between Dadaism and Expression and is mostly also a kind of linguistic art. Great critic Alfred Kerr praised him as a "Wortzerklauberer", a revealing linguistic anarchist; Bertolt Brecht, himself a former member of Valentin's ensemble, once said, it was Karl Valentin who taught him, how to write pieces. Also younger artists from moviemaker Herbert Achternbusch to Christoph Schlingensief ("Valentin is one of the greatest for me!") trace their artistic roots back to the great Munich artist.
