Postcard from... Berlin

Hans Holger Friedrich

His pseudonyms are “ Kinky King” and “Dolphin Man” and only a month ago he was a largely unknown “Berlin scene” entertainer.

In performances he would walk on stage, expose a hairy chest through an unbuttoned shirt and do little more than pull strange faces. “If you see a crap performance of mine, it is not a crap performance, but an exact film of a crap performance,” he liked to say.

But now plump and bearded Hans–Holger Friedrich, 58, a former puppeteer and classically trained actor, has hit the big time after appearing in a three-minute film advertisement for the German supermarket chain, Edeka.

In it Friedrich, who refers to himself as Berlin’s first “ornamental hermit”, sports only sunglasses as he bathes in a bath full of Edeka milk while simultaneously sprinkling himself with Edeka muesli. He puffs on Edeka Frankfurter sausages and dances up and down the supermarket aisles in front of enraptured Edeka staff, singing “Super sexy! Super easy!”

Germany may have a reputation for producing some of the dullest adverts on the planet, but the Kinky King’s performance is clearly an exception.

The advert has gone viral and at the last count it had been viewed well over 1.2 million times on YouTube.

The authoritative American advertising journal Adweek was so impressed that it dubbed it the “world’s craziest advert”.

Mr Friedrich professes to have almost no possessions and little cash, but always appears immaculately dressed in an expensive suit with his white beard neatly trimmed.