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The six-day long carnival takes place in Catholic parts of
Germany and revelers in the Rhineland cities of Cologne,
Duesseldorf and Mainz traditionally poke fun at politicians. One
of the main targets of this year's jokes is Trump.
"We have no more (wigs) in stock because as soon as they come
out of production they are ripped out of my hands," Susanne
Mueller, managing director of Festartikel Mueller, a company
that makes party costumes, in the Bavarian town of Neustadt bei
Coburg, told Reuters Television.
Three of its 35 employees are permanently employed making the
special wigs.
Mueller said the Trump wigs are complicated.
"It requires specialized skills, but luckily my wig makers can
manage. I can't just get in anybody to increase production. I
have to limit myself to my existing workers to guarantee
quality," she said.
She told a local radio station that Trump's hair was unique.
"One side has to be sewn with short hair, the other with long
hair. Then the long hairs are then brushed, pulled over the bald
patch and lastly fixed in place with a hot-melt gun," Mueller
told Antenne Bayern radio.
Carnival is called the "fifth season" in the Rhineland. Revelers
pack the streets to party, consume large amounts of alcohol and
sing and dance.
The festivities culminate in Rose Monday parades featuring
papier mache effigies of public figures.
This year there is one of Trump portrayed as new boy in a
school, joining Russian President Vladimir Putin. The alphabet
is written on the blackboard and Trump's first-day-at-school
present is a special bag with the nuclear codes. Another shows
him as an elephant in a shop full of broken china.
There is also one of conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, who
faces election in September, as a ladybird on her back with her
Social Democrat (SPD) rival Martin Schulz fluttering above her
as a butterfly. He has surprised pundits with a strong showing
in opinion polls.
Carnival kicks off on Thursday with Weiberfastnacht or "women's
carnival," traditionally the day when women, many in clown
costumes and wigs, take over town halls. They symbolically
"castrate" men by cutting off their ties.
(Reporting by Reuters Television; Writing by Madeline Chambers;
Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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