Lars Ruppel

Lars Ruppel, born in 1985, is a German slam poet and cabaret artist who has been performing on stage since the age of sixteen. He started competing on poetry slam stages in 2004 and has been a full-time slammer ever since, building a reputation as one of the best-known representatives of the German-language slam scene. Ruppel has organized poetry slams across Hesse and beyond, in cities including Frankfurt, Marburg, Giessen, Wetzlar, Fulda, Darmstadt, Kelsterbach, Eschborn, and Kressbronn. From 2004 onward he transitioned step by step from competitive slam into a hybrid form that draws on classical storytelling techniques from comedy and cabaret, performing well over three hundred dates a year across Germany.

Lars Ruppel became German-language Poetry Slam Champion in 2014, after multiple runner-up titles and two team championships. He is also a two-time winner of the WDR Poetry Slam on German public television and has appeared on programs including Aspekte, MDR Riverboat, and the NDR Talkshow. His best-known book, Holger, die Waldfee, became a bestseller and brought his irreverent, sledgehammer-style humor to a mass audience; critics often note that his style appears blunt at first, then unfolds with surprising precision. In 2009, his collection of works was published as the Laruppel Trilogy. Beyond slam, Ruppel runs the full-evening program Die Poesiebegeisterungsshow, in which he moves away from competitive slam into a more classical storytelling and cabaret form. Outside the comedy circuit he is the founder and leader of Weckworte (formerly Alzpoetry), a poetry project active since 2009 that uses classical German poems to stimulate memory and emotional engagement in people with Alzheimer's and dementia. The project has run training courses for relatives and care workers in German nursing homes and has also been delivered as workshops in Sudan, India, Russia, and the United States. Ruppel has performed at the Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin and at Schloss Bellevue.

Lars Ruppel performs more than three hundred dates a year across Germany, ranging from poetry slam evenings and his own program Die Poesiebegeisterungsshow to literature festivals and cabaret theaters. Tour dates and bookings are listed on larsruppel.de and through agencies including Slampool and Schaubuehne. His book Holger, die Waldfee remains his best-known title and is widely available, alongside the Laruppel Trilogy. The Weckworte program offers two-hour workshops for up to twenty participants, focused on reciting classical poems to people with dementia.