Hans-Jürgen Dohrenkamp (born 8 June 1948), better known by his stage name Jürgen von der Lippe, is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 television presenter, entertainer, actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 and comedian

Comedian

A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

. His stage name comes from the fact that he was born near the source of the river Lippe

Lippe River

The Lippe is a river in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is a right tributary of the Rhine and in length.The source is located at the edge of the Teutoburg Forest in Bad Lippspringe close to the city of Paderborn. It runs westward through Paderborn, Lippstadt and then along the northern edge...

.

Life

Jürgen von der Lippe was born Hans-Jürgen Dohrenkamp in Bad Salzuflen

Bad Salzuflen

Bad Salzuflen is a town in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. At the end of 2006 it had 54415 inhabitants.-Details:Bad Salzuflen is a spa town and is known for its saltwater springs and thermal baths. In former times the town profited from the salt trade...

, and grew up in Aachen

Aachen

Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...

, where he attended the Kaiser-Karls-Gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 and was a Catholic

Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

 altar boy. (Today he is an agnostic). His father was the barkeeper in a striptease

Striptease

A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...

 bar.

From 1966 to 1970 he trained as a signaller

Signaller

In the armed forces, a signaller or signaleer is a specialist soldier or seaman or airman responsible for military communications. Signallers, aka Combat Signallers or signalmen or women, are commonly employed as radio or telephone operators, relaying messages for field commanders at the front line...

 in the Bundeswehr

Bundeswehr

The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...

, leaving the armed forces a lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

.

In 1976 he, Hans Werner Olm

Hans Werner Olm

Hans Werner Olm is a German television and film comedian.His career began in 1975, when Olm travelled to Berlin to begin his comedy career in the city's clubs, striking a partnership in 1976 with Jürgen von der Lippe among others, known as the Gebrüder Blattschuss...

 and others founded the music group Gebrüder Blattschuss (The Blattschuss Brothers - literally, Blattschuss is a hunting term for a shot through the shoulder into the heart; figuratively, it means getting one's point across succinctly.)

From 1986 to 1988 he was married (his second marriage) to the famous German television presenter Margarethe Schreinemakers

Margarethe Schreinemakers

Margarethe Schreinemakers is a German television presenter, talkshow host and journalist.- Life :Schreinemakers studied sociology at University of Bonn. She works as television presenter and journalist in Germany. She presented on German broadcaster WDR Aktuelle Stunde and Extratour. From 1988 to...

.

Before his career in show business, he began studying German language

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 and literature

German literature

German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German part of Switzerland, and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the modern period is mostly in Standard German, but there...

, philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

 in Aachen and Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, but without graduating.

Television career

Jürgen von der Lippe's first major success was Donnerlippchen (Little Thunder Lips) on WDR

Westdeutscher Rundfunk

Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...

 television station. He went on to present another very successful dating show, Geld oder Liebe (Money or Love) on ARD

ARD (broadcaster)

ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...

; this finished in 2001 after twelve years on air.

Some other public service broadcasting programmes of his included WWF Club (1980 to 1990), So isses ("That's how it is"), Die Goldene Eins ("The Golden No. 1"), Hast Du Worte ("Got words?", Wat is? ("Whassup?"), Lippes Lachmix ("Lippe's Comedy Mix") and Was liest Du? ("What are you reading?").

On commercial television

Commercial Television

Commercial Television was the third free-to-air broadcast television station in Hong Kong. It first went on air in 1975, and ceased transmissions in 1978.-History:...

 he presented the show Blind Dinner (Sat.1

Sat.1

Sat.1 is a privately owned German television broadcasting station. Sat.1 was the first privately owned television broadcasting station in Germany, having started one day before RTL Television....

, 2001), and since 2001 he has presented the humorous Sat.1

Sat.1

Sat.1 is a privately owned German television broadcasting station. Sat.1 was the first privately owned television broadcasting station in Germany, having started one day before RTL Television....

 review of the year's events, Wer zuletzt lacht ("He who laughs last").

In spring 2004 he played the main role of Father Erdmann in the comedy series Der Heiland auf dem Eiland ("The Saviour on the Island") on RTL Television

RTL Television

Rtl.de' redirects here. For other uses, see RTL.RTL Television , or simply RTL, is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite along with DVB-T , in larger population centres...

. The first series of six episodes was very successful. The second series ran from 23 February 2005, this time with eight episodes. Jürgen von der Lippe had already played a Catholic priest in the comedy Nicht mit Leo, in which he also played a brothel

Brothel

Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

 manager and a Foreign Legion

French Foreign Legion

The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...

naire.

As of 2007, he sometimes appears in the improvisational comedy series Schillerstraße

Schillerstraße

Schillerstraße is a German improvisational comedy show that airs weekly on Sat.1. It is recorded without a script and broadcast unedited to a large extent...

, playing the role of Cordula Stratmann

Cordula Stratmann

Cordula Stratmann is a German comedian. After taking the Abitur school-leaving examination, she studied social work at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences in North Rhine-Westphalia, in Cologne. During her work at the family counselling section of the Pulheim youth welfare office she also...

's father. Since 15 July 2006, von der Lippe has also presented the programme Extreme Activity on the commercial station ProSieben.

Career as a singer

In 1976 von der Lippe founded the "Gebrüder Blattschuss", which lasted until 1979. His greatest musical success, however, was Guten Morgen, liebe Sorgen ("Good morning, dear worries"), which made it to first place in the ZDF

ZDF

Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...

 hit parade in July and August 1987.

Stage programme

Von der Lippe's stage appearances have been sold in large numbers as soundtracks and videos. Typically, he dissects odd quirks and everyday events, expertly poking gentle fun at them, with plenty of self-irony. He makes playful use of amusing borrowed words and synonym

Synonym

Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...

s in German.

The main themes are marriage, relationships between men and women and the way people act in certain situations. He often brings in fictitious "autobiographical" stories supposed to be from his youth or childhood, often based on his old "arch enemy" "Udo Lohmeier". Each show generally has a topic running through it. When on tour, von der Lippe also likes to vary the content of his stage shows, integrating current events.

One recurring element over the years has also been von der Lippe's parodies of well-known German stars such as Udo Lindenberg

Udo Lindenberg

Udo Lindenberg is a German rock musician and composer.-Career:Lindenberg started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969 Lindenberg founded his first band Free Orbit and also appeared as a studio and guest musician . In 1970 he collaborated as a drummer with jazz-saxophonist Klaus Doldinger in...

, Peter Maffay

Peter Maffay

Peter Alexander Makkay better known as Peter Maffay is a German musician.- Biography :Born in Brasov, Romania, the son of a German , he was 14 when his family relocated to his parents' Germany in 1963. In the same year, he started his first band, The Dukes...

 and Helge Schneider

Helge Schneider

Helge Schneider is a German comedian, jazz musician and multi-instrumentalist, author, film and theatre director, and actor....

.

Many of his sketches are literal translations from Bill Cosby (e.g. Rache = revenge) or George Carlin (e.g. interview with Jesus).

During his career, von der Lippe has created many characters who appear and reappear in monologue

Monologue

In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...

s and songs, often played by von der Lippe himself in costume. These include a naive Catholic priest who reflects on human behaviour (often sexual), a postal worker from the Sauerland

Sauerland

The Sauerland is a rural, hilly area spreading across most of the south-eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, in parts heavily forested and, apart from the major valleys, sparsely inhabited...

, with an appropriate accent, and "Kalle", a Berlin heavy metal fan.

Singles
Guten Morgen, liebe Sorgen (1987)

Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

: 3 (05.6.1987) 15 weeks

Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

: 11 (15.9.1987) 18 weeks

Dann ist der Wurm drin (1987)

G: 28

Is was (1989)

G: 65

König Der City (1992)

G: 83

Albums
Guten Morgen, liebe Sorgen (1987)

G: 4

Is was? (1989)

G: 62

Der Blumenmann (1995)

G: 78

Männer, Frauen, Vegetarier (1998)

G: 23 (23.1.1998) 15 weeks

So bin ich (2001)

G: 59 (20.4.2001) 3 weeks