Living Moments - N°4 Edition 2017

7TaTYR 8ZXPY_^ Edition 4 · 2016/17 10 getting to know mighty people. Neither in filming and theatre nor in the sphere of politics – with one exception: Willy Brandt. He was, also due to his destiny as an immigrant, a role model for me, and one of the few politicians I was able to like and admire. Are there some todaywhomyou admire? Hardly. There are some I respect; among those are Angela Merkel and Frank- Walter Steinmeier, who both manage a heavy workload. I don’t envy them their strength-sapping job. Who has impressed you the most du- ring your long career as an artist? Fritz Kortner! He was an actor and a (stage) director. When he, coming from American exile, created his big directing events in Munich, I was doing my acting training at the Otto-Falckenberg-School. That was in the early 1950s. I skipped school, went to the theatre and observed him during the rehearsals. His precise interaction with texts and actors, his directing concepts and his impatience, if things didn’t go his way; I learned all the essentials for my later career from Kortner who, as a Jew, was expelled by the Nazis. Besides him there were other important teachers for me, as there were wonderful actors performing at the “Kammerspiele” theatre in Munich. For example? Friedrich Domin, Therese Giehse, Hans- Christian Blech, Peter Lühr, I alsomet the old Hans Moser – those were great ac- tors, along with big directors like Heinz Hilpert, Rudolf Noelte, Hans Schweikart. Just before his passing, Brecht came to Munich as well, to stage one of his plays “The Good Person of Szechwan“. But by then he was already an ill, fragile man though he was only in his mid-50s. All of those mentioned in your book have already passed away. Not only your teachers, but also your then young col- leagues are gone.You are the last witness. Yes, it is getting lonely around me. They are all gone: Maximilian Schell, Hanns Lothar, Gottfried John, Siegfried Lowitz, Horst Tappert, Rolf Boysen. Some of them are nearly forgotten even though their work is preserved and every now and then shown on TV. Being forgotten, that happens to everybody, also to me, I don’t cherish illusions. To use Schiller’s words: “posterity binds no garlands about the actor's head“. Objection. You will bequeath a lot. I love to think of the Nazi follower, Alf- red Matzerath from “The Tin Drum” or Mr Haffenloher, the social climber from “Kir Royal”. I’m really pleased to hear that. But this doesn’t change the fact that most of the two hundred movie and TV roles listed onWikipedia have already disappeared. Nevertheless: if I woke you at night du- ring your sleep and asked you about your best role,what would you answer? The best role? I don’t know. The most fa- mous I could tell you; it is the role which you love so much, of Mr Haffenloher, the parvenu in Munich society. Quote: “Boy, I will shit on you with my money! I’m done with you.”– this scene in which he snubs Baby Schimmerlos has become what is nowadays called iconic. In your book “Schauen Sie mal böse!”, you also describe your childhood. Gro- wing up without a father, born to a destitute mother during the war, I image you as a bright rascal. You can see it this way. In school they described me as being cheeky. I was the jester in class and equipped with a cer- tain craftiness. But I lacked ambition – and a plan as to what I should become in the future. That was also connected to my external circumstances after the war. No money, no relationships, nothing – I faced what was supposed to happen to me. But everything turned out in my favour. Student’s theatre, acting school, the first engagements – maybe it went that way because I have the gift of taking life rather easy.