Germany’s Rosenmontag Puts Satire Center Stage as Float Artist Faces Russian Trial

Overview

• Hundreds of thousands joined parades across Germany on Feb. 16, with Düsseldorf showcasing the most prominent papier-mâché floats.
• Works by Jacques Tilly led the procession, and Russian prosecutors plan to try him in absentia on Feb. 26 for allegedly spreading false information about the military.
• One float showed Vladimir Putin in uniform stabbing a jester labeled “satire,” and another depicted him piloting a drone in AfD colors.
• Donald Trump was portrayed punching a Jesus figure labeled “Love and Humanity,” with “ICE” on his sleeve; Cologne featured a separate Trump mirror tableau.
• Other targets included Jeffrey Epstein, criticized with “Everyone protects the perpetrator/Everyone ignores the victims,” and Chancellor Friedrich Merz riding a dinosaur skeleton in a jab at German auto-policy debates.