Down on the dogs – how Loriot's role reversal outraged society in the 50s
4 April 2025Hardly anyone hears the name Loriot without immediately conjuring up numerous quotes and iconic scenes and characters. The humorist's work has long been part of cultural memory. His trademark remains the bulbous-nosed man, which can already be seen in his early drawings – including the series Got to the dog, which from 1951 onwards Star appears.
In this series, Loriot reverses the roles of dog and human. The oversized dog comments on the behavior of the smaller human and is itself endowed with human attributes. The dog sits in a café, knits, pets cats, and converses. The human person wears a leash around its neck, retrieves, and does not speak. The dog embodies the human's owner, observing and interpreting him in a manner reminiscent of human comments about their dogs. Phrases such as "Everything he does is senseless..." or "What people would say if they could bark" are put into its mouth. This seemingly harmless reversal of animal and human does not sympathize with the spirit of the 1950s. Star Letters from outraged readers who see the drawings as a denigration of "Homo sapiens" and classify the depictions as contemptuous of humanity. These complaints have an impact, and the magazine eventually discontinues the series. Loriot's illustration, which appears in the children's supplement, alone Reinhold the Rhinoceros is continued. This figure is a red rhinoceros with human features, discovering the world in a childlike manner. However, it is much more harmless and does not challenge the supposed dominance of humans.
Comics researcher Dietrich Grünewald attributes the negative criticism to remnants of the National Socialist ideology of superiority or to a sense of shame among Germans in view of their Nazi past and the resulting inability to be self-ironic.[1] However, the feeling of human hubris can also be described from a different perspective. In the field of animal ethics, for example, there is the term "speciesism." This concept encompasses both the devaluation of animals in comparison to humans and the gradation of animals from one another, depending on their "function" for humans. The fact that the reactions of readers back then seem exaggerated and strange to us today shows that society has evolved with regard to its own perception of itself as the "crown of creation." At least companion animals such as dogs and cats are often viewed as family members, and their feelings and actions are compared to those of humans. The situation is different, however, with so-called "farm animals," whose capacity for suffering is sometimes even denied or trivialized. So how much of the thought patterns of 1950s society are still with us today?
Whatever the reasons for the readers' outrage, Loriot's career is certainly not harmed by the end of the series. He decides, On the dog come as a book, he found what he was looking for at Diogenes Verlag, and a collaboration began that lasted until his death. In the exhibition ach was. LORIOT – Artist, critic and cartoonist Some of the pictures can be seen – so if you haven't seen the amusing role reversal yet, you can do so until June 15th.
[1] See Grünewald: Loriot and the Art of Irony, 2019, p. 43.
General exhibition Cartoon art