Adenauer Caricatures Reappear in Berlin Exhibition Marking 150th Birthday
Forty-seven contemporary cartoonists are exhibiting new satirical drawings of West Germany’s first chancellor in Berlin to mark what would have been his 150th birthday, welt.de reported. The collection, titled Adenauer auf der Wolke
and published by Schaltzeit-Verlag for 18 euros, gathers works showing Konrad Adenauer observing modern politics from a cloud. The exhibition runs until November 6 at the Akademie der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Such visual commentary highlights a widespread sentiment that German politics today could use a bit more of Adenauer’s approach.
The project follows an idea pitched in 2023 by Cologne cartoonist Heiko Sakurai during a presentation of historical cartoons by Wilhelm Hartung, welt.de reported. Sakurai noted that whenever he draws Adenauer today, the former leader almost always sits on a cloud uttering something clever or critical about current daily events. The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, a political foundation close to the Christian Democratic Union, invited the artists to draw the late chancellor with no instructions other than placing him on a cloud. Bonn historian Friedrich Kießling told welt.de that Adenauer would likely desire tenacity, conceptual clarity, and political courage from today’s leaders.
Historical Roots and Political Satire in the Capital
Mirko Szewczuk, a staff cartoonist for WELT from 1949 until his death in 1957, established the visual template for portraying Adenauer with oversized eyebrows, heavy bags under his eyes, and a prominent chin, welt.de reported. Szewczuk also gave the founding chancellor an abnormally pointed nose and an aggressively protruding chin. Despite the exaggerated features, Adenauer’s face remained instantly recognizable on a caricature published in WELT on December 10, 1951. In a 1963 television interview, Adenauer claimed he enjoyed the cartoons and did not take offense at pointed humor, stating that he amused himself with the caricatures and checked whether the artist had perhaps touched upon a sore point. As the most frequently caricatured German of the 1950s—ranking ahead of East Berlin’s Walter Ulbricht—Adenauer became a central figure in political satire.
West Germany's first Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, was born on this day 150 years ago.During Adenauer's fourteen years in office, West Germany became a founding member of the EEC (which would later become the EU), joined NATO and signed the landmark Élysée Treaty with France. pic.twitter.com/end97cjax2
Several contributions in the new volume connect Adenauer’s legacy to current political debates, welt.de reported. Karl-Heinz Schoenfeld, born in 1928 and a contemporary active during Adenauer’s tenure including as a Bild
staff artist from 1961, depicts Adenauer on his cloud looking down at the earth with a glass of red wine—artistic freedom, given the chancellor was actually a passionate Riesling connoisseur. Volker Kischkel, publishing under the name MOCK, also contributes to the Adenauer auf der Wolke
collection. Tenniels colleagues previously varied John Tenniel’s striking image dozens of times, culminating in a famous cover by the Hamburg magazine Der Spiegel
regarding Helmut Schmidt’s departure as chancellor in mid-September 1982.
Modern Parallels and Global Politics
Other artists use the cloud motif to critique contemporary governance, welt.de reported. Bonn cartoonist Burkhard Mohr targets national debt levels and political inaction, diagnosing a central deficiency in 2020s German politics more generally than Schoenfeld and Landschulz.
The exhibition remains open at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung’s Berlin academy through November 6, 2026. Whether contemporary politicians will heed the satirical warnings from above remains entirely open.