The fools had to do without their highest holiday for two years because of Corona, but now the wait was over: the Shrove Monday processions celebrated a comeback in the sunshine.
Cologne/Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) – For the first time in three years, the Shrove Monday processions rolled through the foolish strongholds at the climax of the street carnival. In 2021 and 2022 the trains were canceled due to Corona, but now the highest holiday of the carnival people took place again as usual. Hundreds of thousands celebrated on the streets in mostly sunny weather.
The Düsseldorf Carneval Committee estimated the number of visitors at around 600,000. A spokeswoman for the Cologne Carnival Festival Committee said, however, that it was impossible to seriously estimate the number of spectators. But there is “a very, very large rush” – even more than in the years before Corona.
“I think that in bad times you need good, subversive satire,” said the Düsseldorf wagon builder Jacques Tilly. Accordingly, the carnivalists practiced caustic criticism of Vladimir Putin in particular: in Cologne’s Shrove Monday procession, he kissed the devil and turned the world through the meat grinder as a vampire. In Düsseldorf, the Russian President took a bloodbath in a tub painted in the Ukrainian colors of blue and yellow.
A hesitant Chancellor Olaf Scholz was taken on the horns by a billy goat on the Düsseldorf train and pushed forward – the animal was labeled “Strack-Zimmermann”, the name of the energetic chairman of the defense committee. Economics Minister Robert Habeck meanwhile had to swallow one toad after the other: nuclear power, armament, gas from dictatorships… In Cologne, “Habück” made a deep servant to an oversized sheik in search of new energy suppliers.
Another Düsseldorf car showed a triumphant “Miss Brexit ’23” waving a Union Jack flag, but she was emaciated to the bone – a nod to Britain’s economic losses after leaving the EU. The Catholic Church – one of Tilly’s favorite topics – was represented again: The abuse scandal in the form of a devil wanted to pull Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki away with it, but he clung to the Cologne Cathedral with all his might, causing the church building to collapse brought.
The focal point of the “Free Iran” float was the head of a young woman with a “Mullarsch” caught in her flowing hair. “What these women take on for their freedom is insane,” Tilly told the German Press Agency. “I really have the utmost respect for their courage.”
In Cologne, former US President Donald Trump was also part of the party again: with a snorkel and diving goggles, he climbed out of a golden toilet, holding a flag that said “Trump 2024” – then he wants to be a Republican candidate again go for the highest office. Entrepreneur Elon Musk appeared as a Bond villain with a golden gun in his hand and a white cat on his lap.
The Cologne Rose Monday procession, which celebrated its 200th anniversary this year, started for the first time in Deutz on the right bank of the Rhine and then crossed the Rhine to the inner city on the left bank of the Rhine. A “little lifelong dream” came true for TV presenter Johannes B. Kerner because he was allowed to ride in one of the cars in Cologne for the very first time. Born in the Rhineland, he promised not to be stingy with camels – as a child it always bothered him that “they threw far too little”.