Series / Drag Race Germany

"Look at me, look at us. This is drag. Drag is freedom, drag is love and drag is self-expression. Drag doesn't hurt anybody."

— Loreley Rivers (season 1)

Drag Race Germany is a German Reality Show in which Drag Queens from Germany, Austria and Switzerland compete in challenges to impress host Barbie Breakout, with the winner of the series crowned as Germany's drag superstar and awarded other prizes. The show is part of the international Drag Race franchise.

The challenges cover things such as modelling, makeup and fashion design - as well as comedy, acting and dance performances. Each episode also includes at least one themed runway fashion show, which may or may not be related to the episode's other challenges.

As well as the challenges themselves, a large part of each show is devoted to conversation and events backstage, in the shared "Werk Room". This is where contestants prepare their costumes, do their makeup and rehearse for some of the challenges. Contestants aren't usually in drag during these segments, but still use their stage names - Drag Race largely avoids mentioning contestants' legal names unless contestants specifically share them.

At the end of each episode, contestants in the middle of the field are immediately marked as 'safe' until the next episode, whereas contestants at the top and bottom of the results remain onstage to hear the jury's critiques. As the series progresses, the number of safe places available steadily reduces.

Once the critiques are over one queen is normally declared the week's winner, two are warned that they potentially face elimination, and any remaining queens who received critiques are also declared 'safe'.

As with other Drag Race shows, elimination is tied to a "lip sync battle" - the two contestants lip sync to a song chosen by the jury, with both queens performing onstage at the same time. Barbie and the jury then decide who'll be saved and who'll be sent home.

Barbie's effectively the head judge, supported by a panel that also includes Gianni Jovanovic and Dianne Brill. There is often a special guest as a fourth judge, with several different celebrities during the season.

Drag Race Germany is filmed in German and streamed internationally with subtitles. Unless otherwise noted, all English language quotes on this page are taken from official subtitles.

The first season was preceded by a one-off "Meet the Host" video introducing Barbie Breakout and a "Meet the Queens" special introducing the contestants.

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Drag Race Germany contains examples of the following tropes:

• Always Second Best: In season one Metamorkid is a consistently strong performer and makes it to the final. Other competitors still comment on how she's been repeatedly overshadowed by the season's other Austrian queen, Pandora Nox. During the comedy roast this fuels one of Yvonne Nightstand's most successful punchlines, a joke that she should use her winnings to buy a new winter wardrobe because "it's cold in Pandora's shadow".
• Back for the Finale: The eliminated season one contestants return for "The Reunion", the penultimate episode, where they get a chance to talk to the judges and show some of the runway looks they didn't get to wear. They're also back for the "Grand Finale" itself, unexpectedly appearing as backing dancers for the final three's last dance challenge. They're back onstage when the winner is crowned.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: At the end of season one's "Web Show" challenge, only four contestants remain. They expect that there will be a winner and one 'safe' runner-up, followed by a lip sync battle to eliminate one of the other two. Metamorkid and Yvonne Nightstand are confident that they're the top two - on a Confession Cam segment, Yvonne even confirms that she isn't properly dressed for a lip sync and skipped her last chance to review the song. Barbie then declares the other contestants safe and, wearing a very serious expression, tells the shocked Yvonne and Metamorkid that they must lip sync... before clarifying that this is to decide the winner. There are no eliminations in this episode.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: For season one's "Dianne's Nightclub" mini-challenge the contestants get three minutes to change into hasty drag before somehow persuading Dianne Brill to let them into her exclusive "Dianneceteria" nightclub. Pandora Nox simply throws on a jacket and sunglasses, then claims to be the club's new bouncer.
  Pandora Nox: I'm the new bouncer.
  Dianne Brill: Okay...
  Pandora Nox: [to bouncer] Bro! Shift changeover!
  Dianne Brill: This is really...
  Pandora Nox: [walks straight past Dianne, talking into headset] Herbert? Herbert? There are some drag queens that need to be kicked out? That's my job. That's my job.
• Bowdlerise: The subtitles keep much of the show's original swearing, but they also edit examples to reduce its frequency.
  Loreley Rivers: [German dialogue] Jeder, der mich kennt, weiß, ich bin eine fucking shady bitch.
  Loreley Rivers: [English subtitles] Everybody who knows me a bit knows that I'm a shady bitch.
• Celebrity Impersonator:
  • One of the first season's runway fashion themes is "Night of a Thousand Merkels", with all of the contestants portraying Angela Merkel. It's the last challenge of the episode, so the two contestants facing elimination are still in costume for a final Merkel vs. Merkel lip sync battle (to Lizzo's "About Damn Time").
  • The "Snatch Game" Game Show challenge is a comedy spoof of Match Game with the contestants impersonating celebrities. For season one, impersonations include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  • Invoked for season one's "Dianne's Nightclub" challenge, as Metamorkid's character is "the fifth best Britney Spears impersonator in Switzerland", and directly described as an impersonation of her fellow contestant Victoria Shakespears impersonating Britney.
• Chirping Crickets:
  • A 'nothing but crickets' sound effect is deployed during season one's "Reading is Fundamental" comedy challenge, when Victoria Shakespears verbally swipes at one of her competitors but gets absolutely no reaction from the audience.
  • Instead of directly adding a cricket sound effect during season one's comedy roast, when Loreley Rivers' routine falls flat, the show cuts to her Confession Cam for an awkward "Oh. Wow. Crickets".
• Clip Show: The penultimate episode of season one, "The Reunion", is a Filler episode that provides a change of pace before the finale. The first half looks back at the series so far, with clips of memorable moments discussed by the judges and contestants.
• Companion Cube: For the first season's web show challenge, one team interviews Tessa Testicle's leggings. Tessa isn't wearing them at the time, and the leggings are simply draped over a chair. A high pitched, unintelligible voice is added for the final edit, which the interviewers have no problem understanding, even if the audience doesn't.
• Confession Cam: Contestants provide commentary via confessional interviews, which are recorded after the scenes they refer to, then spliced into the episode. Confessionals typically start on video, sometimes continuing as voiceover once the episode cuts back to the original scene. Confessionals are recorded out of drag.
• Continuity Nod: In the first season's Reunion episode, Barbie Breakout refers to Barbie Q as "the German Porkchop", a reference to the first drag queen eliminated from RuPaul's Drag Race at the very start of the Series Franchise.
• Cultural Translation:
  • The first season's musical challenge is a Police Procedural spoof. In the original German it's "Dragort", based on long-running German police series Tatort. As Tatort isn't widely known in other parts of the world, English subtitles rename it to "CSI: Drag", spoofing the CSI franchise instead.
  • During the first season's reading challenge, Yvonne Nightstand compares Nikita Vegaz to her favourite film. In the English subtitles, that's Dumb and Dumber - but in the German dialogue, it's actually Dick und Doof ("Fat and Stupid"), the German name used for Laurel and Hardy's films.
• Dance Party Ending: Normally episodes end by showing the remaining contestants dancing to RuPaul's "Rock It (To the Moon)" for a couple of seconds, then cut to the moment when they leave the stage. For the season finale Barbie Breakout, all of the contestants, and the newly crowned winner all remain onstage, surrounded by celebratory fireworks, dancing 'til the credits roll.
• Death Glare: In season one, Yvonne Nightstand is certain she's in the top two for the "Web Show" challenge. Then it seems she's actually facing elimination. She is, in her own words, "super-mad" and "livid" about this, and gives the judges an extremely irate glare, which is called out on Confession Cam by another contestant. The judges, who are actually setting up a Bait-and-Switch Comment joke, are clearly amused and comment on it afterwards.
  Metamorkid: I look at Yvonne. Yvonne is killing the judges with her stare.
• Drag Queen:
  • As with other Drag Race shows, not only is it a contest for drag queens to demonstrate their skills, but host Barbie Breakout is a well-established German drag queen as well. In practice, much of each episode covers the Werk Room preparations and rehearsals, with contestants mostly out of drag. Confession Cam segments, commenting on the show's events, are also filmed out of drag.
  • One of the first season's challenges is the "Dragtastic Dirndl Makeover", in which each contestant has to transform a Drag Race superfan into a new drag queen. It's complicated by a requirement that the new queens must be part of the same 'drag family' as their contestant, with some sort of family resemblance.
  • Season one's contestants include Pandora Nox, a cis woman who's primarily a drag queen, but also delivers a bearded and bare-chested drag king look for one challenge.
• Duality Motif: Throughout the series, judges comment that Pandora Nox seems guarded and is wary of displaying too much femininity or sensitivity. For her "Best Drag" runway look in the grand finale, she responds to this with an asymmetrical costume mixing armour plate with magenta frills, showcasing the different sides to her personality.
  Pandora Nox: On one hand, the tough and strong side, represented by armor, on the other hand my emotional, sensitive side, represented with pink or rather magenta in this case.
• Elimination Catchphrase: Barbie dismisses eliminated contestants with the same "Sashay away" used on most of the English-language Drag Race shows.
• Elimination Houdini: invoked Contestants are eliminated via lip sync battle and those who consistently deliver strong lip syncs despite poor challenge results can stay in the show for quite some time. Competitors in the wider Drag Race franchise often refer to these contestants as "Lip Sync Assassins" - especially if they eliminate queens who usually place much higher in the competition. In season one, Tessa Testicle survives three lip syncs, then uses a Confession Cam segment to directly acknowledge her status.
  Tessa Testicle: Germany, you're looking at Barbie's personal hitwoman. [shrugs] You've been warned.
• Elimination Statement: As with other shows in the Drag Race franchise, eliminated contestants usually make two different statements when they leave. The first is a final comment to the jury and cameras, before the contestant leaves the stage. The second is a message for the remaining contestants, written in lipstick on the werk room mirror.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first episode deliberately gives each contestant a showcase to establish their drag style and persona when they make their grand entrance. Each queen walks into the Werk Room in full drag, pauses, poses and delivers a carefully chosen entrance line.
• Everyone Meets Everyone: The first episode of the season begins with the contestants entering the werk room in drag, one at a time. Some of them may already know each other, but they get some time to talk and introduce themselves before Barbie arrives.
• Fashion Hurts: Drag is not usually comfortable and contestants in the Werk Room are sometimes vocal about aches, pains and how urgently they need to change clothes after a challenge is complete.
• Filler: The penultimate episode of season one is "The Reunion", in which the eliminated contestants return to join the final three, Gianni and Barbie talk though clips of previous episodes with the contestants, and the eliminated queens get to show some runway looks they didn't get a chance to wear. The title of "Miss Darling" is granted to the queen who's voted nicest and most popular, but there's no judging, there are no challenges, and it has no impact on the final episode. The grand finale's "Last week on Drag Race Germany..." recap and opening scene follow on from the episode two weeks earlier, entirely ignoring "The Reunion".
• Foreign Remake: Drag Race Germany is a German version of RuPaul's Drag Race, the US show that originally launched the Drag Race franchise.
• Game Show Physical Challenge:
  • Some mini-challenges have unexpected physical elements. The first season's "Fairytale photoshoot" asks contestants to pose as a "Bavarian princess" in a midwinter scene, holding a beer mug on a platform in the middle of the stage. It's not until contestants are on the platform that they discover it's actually a turntable, so they'll be trying to pose while spinning and being blasted with fake snow. Another season one challenge, "Workout Queens", puts them on a treadmill.
  • Construction maxi-challenges require contestants to create new outfits from scavenged items. The most physical element comes from the scavenging itself - for the first season's "Poor but sexy" theme, they get three minutes to search bags and boxes and grab things they can use. This also means they're racing to get the most useful items before someone else takes them. The winner of the previous mini-challenge gets a ten second head start.
• The Ghost: Dianne Brill doesn't speak German as her first language and has an earpiece connection to "Herbert", who helps her with translation questions. However, we never hear Herbert's side of the conversation and the mysterious translator never appears onscreen.
• Given Name Reveal: Notably averted. For most of the series, contestants who use Stage Names for their drag personas are only ever referred to by those names, even when out of drag. Real names are not revealed. This is the standard approach for the whole Drag Race franchise. However, other Drag Race shows use the finalists' real first names when they're asked what they'd tell their younger selves. Drag Race Germany drops this and uses their stage names throughout the final.
• Gratuitous English: It's a German language show, but Barbie and the contestants tend to switch into English now and then, sometimes just to emphasise a particular point.
  Barbie Breakout: Du warst in der letzen Folge in the bottom three.
• Hate Dumb: invoked In season one's episode "The Reunion", host Barbie Breakout has a direct message for the audience, saying that some parts of the Drag Race fandom are "infamous" for toxic online comments, including racism, ageism and fat-shaming. She makes it very clear that she doesn't consider bigots to be true drag fans and demands that fans should respect all contestants.
  Barbie Breakout: The atmosphere in social media can become very toxic, racist, fat-phobic, ageist, all these things. And I just want to tell you in no uncertain terms, if you claim to be fans of drag, it means all of drag, not just your favorites. And it's not drag-friendly to pick one and hate on the others. I demand that you respect my queens, and I mean all my queens.
• I Love the Dead: The first season's musical challenge is a spoof police story. The police pathologist's song eventually admits that she's a necrophiliac.
• invoked In Memoriam: Part of season one's "The Reunion" episode is in memory of Cherry Valentine, a RuPaul's Drag Race UK contestant who died about a year before Drag Race Germany was filmed. For this episode Gianni Jovanovic wears a t-shirt with an image of Cherry on it. Gianni, like Cherry, is of Roma heritage, and in this segment he talks a little about the visibility of Sinti and Roma performers in the drag scene.
• Instant Costume Change: Season one includes a "three-in-one reveal" runway challenge, with contestants transforming their outfit twice while onstage. As with other Drag Race shows, the contestants sometimes build these sudden reveals into other outfits as well.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: For the web show challenge, one team interviews Tessa Testicle's leggings. Tessa's not wearing them at the time, and they communicate in a fast-paced, high-pitched squeak that's unintelligible to the audience but apparently makes perfect sense to the interviewers.
• Losing Horns: At the start of the first season's "Dragtastic Dirndl Makeover", the contestants are paired with Drag Race superfans who'll receive a makeover. On Confession Cam Yvonne Nightstand, who's been paired with an older man who reminds her of her father, grumbles that she's been given the hardest task and feels she's been taken for a ride. The camera cuts back to them together, with a sad "Wah-wah-wah-wahhhhhh" sound effect added.
• Mic Drop:
  • In season one, Victoria Shakespears brings a mic onstage for her fourth lip sync battle, ending the performance with a mic drop. She still gets eliminated from the competition, though.
  • During season one's comedy roast, Keely Heelton ends her set by saying the next queen "needs no introduction"... and promptly walks offstage without introducing her, leaving the judges collapsed into laughter. The scene cuts to Confession Cam, where a grinning Keely drops her nonexistent mic and says "And baby... mic drop. This is how you do it!".
• Mission Control: German isn't Dianne's first language and she has an earpiece connection to Herbert, an offscreen translator who assists her with some phrasing. This is the subject of several jokes, especially from contestants in season one's "Dianne's Nightclub" challenge.
• Money, Dear Boy: invoked In the initial "Meet the Queens" special, season one's competitors are asked why they want to be Germany's first drag superstar. Some talk about art and acceptance. Several mostly refer to the cash prize. Drag is not cheap. Similar comments are made after some of the mini-challenges award cash prizes.
  Pandora Nox: Why do I want to win? There is money to win. And drag is expensive. And money for drag is therefore always great!
• On the Next: Every episode (aside from the season finales) cuts from the onstage ending to a set of "Next time on..." clips. The clip montage introduces the week's main challenge and normally includes some juror's comments, but doesn't reveal who's being judged. Closing credits follow the clips.
• Parody Commercial: Season one's "Dragvertising" challenge requires the contestants to create parody commercials for ludicrous products.
• Product Placement: The winner of season one receives a year's supply of cosmetics from Anastasia Beverly Hills. Not only does the title voiceover mention this in every episode, but Anastasia's logo and products are very visible in the Werk Room set. Other sponsors are generally a little less prominent, but deliberately mentioned or shown from time to time.
• Punny Name: Some of the show's competitors use Stage Names with puns for their Drag Queen persona. For season one, examples include Yvonne Nightstand ("One Night Stand") and Barbie Q ("Barbecue").
• The Roast: Season one includes a comedy roast maxi-challenge, with each queen asked to roast the judges and the other competitors. The competitors are reminded that roasts don't have to pull their punches, but that the 'mean' lines only work if they're actually funny.
  Barbie Breakout: Most importantly about a roast, you can go far below the belt, you can say mean stuff. But it has to be funny.
• Romance on the Set: invoked One of Pandora Nox's Confession Cam segments mentions the chemistry between Metamorkid and Yvonne Nightstand, who later kiss during their lip sync battle. The judges ask if this was a scripted move, and they say it wasn't. The judges then ask if they've kissed before... and the answer is "maybe". In subsequent episodes they make it clear that there are genuine feelings there, and Yvonne is uncomfortable watching Metamorkid getting on very well with her makeover challenge volunteer.
• Share Phrase: Barbie's inherited a few specific lines from RuPaul and the English language Drag Race shows, including "Two queens stand before me", "And don't fuck it up", "Shantay, you stay", and the "Sashay away" Elimination Catchphrase. Most of these aren't delivered in German. Challenge winners may also get an English "con-drag-ulations", another RuPaul catchphrase.
• Shipper on Deck: In season one, Pandora Nox seems sure that there's chemistry between Metamorkid and Yvonne Nightstand. When they later kiss during their lip sync battle, she's pretty appreciative.
  Pandora Nox: Lesbians allegedly like to watch gay porn. I never understood why. But now I get it.
• Shout-Out:
  • As with other shows in the Drag Race franchise, Drag Race Germany includes a "Snatch Game" challenge, a spoof of Match Game in which the contestants impersonate celebrities within a gameshow.
  • The first season's musical ("Rusical") challenge is a Police Procedural spoof. In English subtitles it's referred to as "CSI: Drag", a reference to the American CSI shows. In the original German dialogue (and in onscreen text), though, it's "Dragort", a reference to long-running German police show Tatort.
• Snake People: For season one's "three-in-one reveal" runway challenge Pandora Nox initially slithers onstage as a legless snake woman, shedding her tail and becoming more human as part of the Instant Costume Changes for her reveals.
• Spell My Name with a "The": Season one contestant The Only Naomy uses "The" as part of her Stage Name and introduces herself in the "Meet the Queens" video by saying she has no last name, but does have a prefix.
• Split Screen: For season one's "Rock Star Groupies", the contestants each get thirty seconds to rock out onstage with mic or instruments. Only one person performs at a time, but three-way split screen is briefly used to show multiple performances, as if they were a band onstage together.
• Stage Name:
  • All of season one's contestants use stage names for their Drag Queen personas, and are almost exclusively referred to by those names, even when backstage and out of drag. Host Barbie Breakout is also only ever referred to by her drag name.
  • Contestants have to invent new stage names for some challenges, such as the personas they create for season one's "Rock Star Groupies" mini-challenge.
  • The first season's "Dragtastic Dirndl Makeover" challenge requires each contestant to transform a Drag Race superfan into a new drag queen. As part of that task they need to agree on a new stage name for their partner - and it needs to be one that links to their own, identifying them as part of the same 'drag family'.
• Take That!:
  • In the second episode of season one, the contestants are given just three minutes to get into basic, unpolished drag before starting an exercise routine. The Only Naomy then starts her routine by joking that "My name today is Anita Wigl'it". Anita is a New Zealand drag queen who competed in RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under.
  • In the first season's "Snatch Game" Game Show challenge, Pandora Nox, in character as Arnold Schwarzenegger fails to answer a quiz question and only manages to write down his own name. Barbie quips that, for a Republican, that's still quite an achievement.
• This Is a Competition: At the start of season one's "Grand Finale" Metamorkid comments to the other two contestants that, although they've grown together like a family, they "need to get the claws out one last time" and fight each other. Pandora Nox, previously described by another competitor as more machine than human, immediately replies "So, what I've been doing all along".
• This Is Gonna Suck: During season one's "Dragtastic Dirndl Makeover" challenge, Yvonne Nightstand is paired with an older partner, a drag fan she struggles to transform into a new Drag Queen. One scene in the Werk Room shows her reacting to the other contestants' progress and the confidence and skills of their makeover partners. It then cuts to Confession Cam, where her only dialogue is "Fuck fuck fuck, fuck fuck fuck". It's subverted when Yvonne decides on a look and routine that leverages her partner's inexperience. They get nothing but praise from the judges - and win the challenge.
• Two-Faced: One first season episode includes a split-face makeup challenge. Contestants are asked to present a masculine look on one side of their face and a feminine look on the other side. Nikita Vegaz takes a different option and delivers a half-demonic face instead.
• Unintelligible Accent: Season one includes a few jokes about the Austrian competitors' strong accents, with Metamorkid using their "Meet the Queens" debut to warn German viewers that they'll need to use subtitles.
• Voted Off the Island:
  • Barbie Breakout normally chooses the two queens who'll lip sync to avoid elimination and then, after the lip sync battle, chooses which queen will go home. Given the nature of the challenges and the lip sync itself, there's always a subjective element to these decisions.
  • On occasion, Barbie can defy the usual voting rules. In season one, she chooses not to eliminate either contestant after the first episode's lip sync. Later in the season, the judges disagree on the two weakest contestants, so Barbie opts for a three-way lip sync battle.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Like their American counterparts in RuPaul's Drag Race, the Pit Crew who assist the contestants with some challenges are muscular men who normally only wear underwear.

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"Drag is independent of skin colour, of religion, of origin. Drag is art, drag is... soul."

— Kelly Heelton, Meet the Queens (season 1)