Horst Tomayer

Horst Tomayer (born November 1, 1938, in Asch; died December 13, 2013, in Hamburg) was a German poet, columnist, and actor.

After training as an insurance clerk, Horst Tomayer worked as—among other things—a journalist, radio contributor, and satirist. He became particularly well-known for his long-running column, *Tomayers ehrliches Tagebuch* (Tomayer’s Honest Diary), which appeared in the magazine *konkret* from 1982 until shortly before his death. During the 1970s and 1980s, he also garnered attention through satirical telephone stunts, in which he posed as a conservative persona to elicit provocative statements from prominent public figures.

Tomayer authored numerous radio pieces—including contributions to the WDR program *Kritisches Tagebuch*—and performed as a spoken-word artist alongside Hermann L. Gremliza. In 1990, a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court attracted nationwide attention when it classified his parody *Deutschlandlied ’86* as protected satire.