Überbrettl ("super-cabaret"), later known as Buntes Theater ("colorful theatre"), was the first venue in Germany for literary cabaret, or Kabarett, founded in Berlin in January 1901 by Ernst von Wolzogen. The German Kabarett concept was imported from France, from which it kept the characteristic atmosphere of intimacy. But the German type developed his own peculiarities, most prominently its characteristic gallows humor.[1]
In the foundation of the Überbrettl, von Wolzogen was inspired by Otto Julius Bierbaum's 1897 novel Stilpe. The initial name Überbrettl is a play of words on Friedrich Nietzsche's Übermensch, Superman.
It retained the intimate atmosphere, entertainment platform, and improvisational character of the French cabaret but developed its own characteristic gallows humour. By the late 1920s the German cabaret gradually had come to feature mildly risque musical entertainment for the middle-class man, as well as biting political and social satire. It was also a centre for underground political and literary movements. [...] They were the centres of leftist of opposition to the rise of the German Nazi Party and often experienced Nazi retaliation for their criticism of the government.