Bas Böttcher and the poetry of the moment

When the Weilheim High School invites you to a poetry reading, it's always a promising event.

Who hasn't been a guest here?

And again there was a great author: Bas Böttcher.

Weilheim – Reiner Kunze, Walter Kempowski, Golo Mann and Hans Magnus Enzensberger are just a few of the big names who have sharpened the students’ literary attention for more than four decades.

But it's not always dead serious, authors like Sir Peter Ustinov and Loriot have been guarantors of that in the past.

Bas Böttcher joined them.

The pop-poetry pioneer, as the NZZ calls him, delighted the 300 or so guests in the auditorium with his limitless puns and the love for language that he so blatantly expressed.

And Böttcher, who was already on the road as a poetry slamer before the term was even invented, wants to pass this love on to the next generation.

Students recited their poems

The day at the Weilheim High School started early in the morning.

He spent the whole morning in a workshop with class 9a - the results of this literary journey into unknown realms were also heard at the evening reading.

Because here the students - individually or in small groups - recited their own poems and received the applause they deserved.

Coupled and twisted

On behalf of the "German" student council, Christian Rühle welcomed the poet to the "reading", which this time wasn't one, however, because with one exception, Böttcher recited all of his limitless puns by heart.

In a passionate tour de force he carried off the audience from the youngest to the older semesters into the poetry of the moment.

And it quickly became clear that the German language is capable of much more than one often gives it credit for.

Words were linked, rotated and letters pushed back and forth between them.

With rhythmic elements, Böttcher made a galloping rap out of Goethe's Erlkönig and twisted double words until the listeners almost got dizzy.

Many a veteran visitor to a poetry reading felt reminded of Ernst Jandl, whose verses only really became apparent to the students when the poet himself recited them melodically.

Treatise on the point

The obligatory question part after the break was not to be missed, and the students' fingers just shot up.

Someone wanted to know whether he had been fascinated by the language as a child, and Böttcher frankly admitted that he had started playing on words at a very early age.

The fact that he was already doing poetry slam before the term was invented also came out.

Because he passionately participated in the "Urban Poetry" events in Hamburg's Mojo Club.

It was also clarified that Bas is a Bastian and, if necessary, a Sebastian.

And that for Böttcher a poem is only good if it is consistent, although it doesn't have to be correct.

Finally, the poet closed the event with the "Dot-Matrix", an eleven-fold philosophical treatise on the dot and was able to look forward to thunderous applause.

Bianca R. Heigl