Biography

Together with artists like Hans Deppe, Rudolf Platte and Robert A. Stemmle he founded the cabaret Die Katakombe with some friends in 1929. Finck acted as conferencier, and the cabaret, became successful because of his critical and subtly impudent remarks against the Nazis, proving to be an early thorn in their side. Finck had an ability to be seemingly lost for words when saying something and the audience, playing along, finished his sentences. He often defied authority by daring Gestapo informers in the audience to write down every word he said. According to an anecdote, Finck once confronted an officer asking with seeming innocence, "Am I talking too fast? Can you follow me or shall I follow you?".

Finck temporarily served as a troop entertainer and later used his World War II exploits in a cabaret programme entitled Der brave Soldat schweigt ("The Good Soldier Shuts Up" - a pun on Jaroslav Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk). He witnessed the German Surrender as a POW of the U.S. Army in Bad Aibling, Bavaria.

German comedian, cabaret artiste and writer, the son of a pharmacist. He began his career as a fairytale storyteller in the 1920's. He was a co-founder of the Berliner cabaret 'Die Katakombe' in 1929. Finck came to prominence in the 1930's for brazenly satirizing the Nazi regime on stage. He was eventually imprisoned for six weeks at the Esterwegen concentration camp and only released after his friend, the actress Käthe Dorsch interceded on his behalf with Herman Goering. Finck later enlisted in the Wehrmacht as a private to evade further retribution. He resumed performing in political cabaret and in films after the war, also touring the United States in 1968.

Finck died in Munich, where he is buried in the Waldfriedhof cemetery. The inscription on his tombstone reads: "You are still here and I passed away, soon you are there where I am today.".

Bertolt Brecht wrote the poem Eulenspiegel überlebt den Krieg for Werner Finck.