From our Unknown Germany files.
Care for a drink at the Alibi Bar?
If the bar were in London, this would be David Cameron's favorite hangout, but our incarnation of the Alibi Bar was in post World War II West Germany with its own cast of colorful characters.
You might make the acquaintance of private investigator Nick Knatterton, offspring of German minor aristocracy and uncannily Sherlock Holmes-y in his looks, including the pipe.
Wikipedia has an English article about the detective. The German entry is, as you would expect, quite a bit longer and lists many of the other figures who populate his world.
The affable detective appeared in the German weekly "Quick", which was published between 1948 and 1992. If you do an image search for the magazine, you will find a collection of scantily clad 1960's Frauleins, an indication the Knatterton strips were sometimes a little risque, if not in themselves, then by virtue of them being set between pages of glossy gals.
The affable PI's adventures were made into a couple of movies, and a number of short TV clips are on Youtube, for instance "The Secrets of the Alibi Bar" (in German).
Earlier this year, Nick's creator Manfred Schmidt's 100th birthday was commemorated with an exhibition of Knatterton and other works at the Wilhem Busch Museum.
The K-Landnews culture editor requested we end the post with a note about the popularity of the name Alibi for watering holes over many decades. The most recent one came as the "Alibi Room" in the U.S. version of the TV show "Shameless".
No comments:
Post a Comment