- Cabaret star Richard Rogler is dead.
He was one of the most important figures in the German cabaret scene: Richard Rogler has died. He was 74 years old, as his family announced on Tuesday in Cologne. Rogler, the first host of the well-known WDR series "Midnight Peaks", was considered a pioneer of political stage art. According to the reports, the Cologne native died on Sunday.
The Grimme Prize winner Rogler, who originally came from Upper Franconia, began his career in 1974 with children's theater and then performed with Heinrich Pachl as the duo "The True Anton". Since 1986, he has been on stage with solo programs.
For decades, he reached a large audience throughout Germany with numerous successful programs and received the German Cabaret Prize several times before retiring from the touring business in 2018. Rogler belonged to the "Scheibenwischer" ensemble and also moderated the public broadcasting television shows "Society Evening", "Rogler's Raging Cabaret", and "Rogler's Freedom".
In an obituary, his family said that Rogler had uniquely combined "boundless energy, acting skill, sacred anger, and deep love for his characters to weave together theater and cabaret, grand world theater and small art, political actuality and human abysses into a completely new form".
His cabaret colleague Wilfried Schmickler paid tribute to him as a "giant role model". "It was a revelation for me when I saw him on stage for the first time," Schmickler told the German Press Agency in Cologne. "To stand on stage with such a snout, to express one's opinion so fiercely and pointedly."
Rogler's "casual humor and great skill in presenting things" had fascinated him, said the 69-year-old, who regularly appeared on "Midnight Peaks". "He has influenced me and many other cabaret artists in a lasting way."
In a 2015 dpa interview, Rogler said: "I don't feel like anything special, I'm a democrat at heart and have always operated on the principle: If someone feels attacked or offended, they shouldn't worry, because the next one will be in ten minutes."
Rogler's passing occurred on Sunday, as his family announced in Cologne. His influential career spanned decades, with numerous successful cabaret shows and television appearances on programs like "Midnight Peaks" and "Rogler's Raging Cabaret."
