The bath salt comedian Gerd Knebel is dead. He died on Saturday at the age of 72, as his friend and comedy partner Henni Nachtsheim told the German Press Agency.
Knebel “left us with dignity and peace surrounded by his loved ones after a serious case of cancer,” said a statement published jointly by Knebel’s family and Nachtsheim.
Knebel became known in the 1980s as a singer with the band Flatsch. He later founded the comedy duo Badesalz with Nachtsheim. Knebel was the father of two children and lived in southern Hesse.
“He didn’t lose his sense of humor until the end and made us laugh even in our grief. He is and remains a great loss to us, and our hearts are incredibly heavy,” the statement said.
Not only successful as bath salts
Knebel recently canceled events for health reasons, as can be seen on his homepage.
Knebel was active in several bands and performed solo with changing programs. A solo program was called “Weggugge” – it was about looking away as a possible survival strategy. He released numerous albums.
Knebel was also an author, “Friendship in the Offside,” a novel about an unusual friendship, was published in 2024. In “Wörld of Drecksäck” in 2018, Knebel took stock of the big and small scumbags in the world who make life difficult. He had previously celebrated success with a solo program of the same name.
Duo with cult status
Knebel was certainly most successful as part of the Badesalz duo, which made Hessian dialect and humor known nationwide. “Badesalz” enjoys cult status, especially in Hesse. Bath salt became popular throughout Germany primarily thanks to two television series “Och Joh” in 1990 on ARD and “Comedy Stories” in 2000 on Sat.1.
In 1991, her second record “Not without my Pappa” was the first German spoken record to reach a place in the music charts since 1983. In 1998 Badesalz received the Echo record industry award. Badesalz also appeared on “Rock am Ring” and “Wetten, dass…?” on. At the end of 2024, Knebel and Nachtsheim released a New Year’s Eve song called Badesalz.
