Hape Kerkeling looks back His greatest cult moment was his appearance as Queen Beatrix
Hape Kerkeling doesn't give a damn about the laws of show business: the German entertainer has revolutionized television and humour. Now a documentary looks back on the 60-year-old's career.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Entertainer, comedian and bestselling author Hape Kerkeling turned 60 this week.
- Kerkeling has made television history with his characters such as Horst Schlämmer and Queen Beatrix.
- The ARD documentary "Hape Kerkeling - Totally normal" by filmmaker Eric Friedler is a journey into the professional and personal cosmos of Hape Kerkeling.
In the 90-minute documentary "Hape Kerkeling - Total normal" (in the ARD media library), with which Erste Deutsche Fernsehen celebrates Hape Kerkeling on his 60th birthday, there is a small scene that is indicative of the entertainer and comedian's talent:
The film crew is in a street café on one of Amsterdam's canals. This is perhaps Kerkeling's favorite city, with which he has many personal connections.
He talks about his life as the waitress brings the ordered drinks. We see three glasses of white wine and several bottles of water. A bit much for one person.
Hape Kerkeling says a friendly thank you and points out to the audience that the illusion that he is sitting alone in the café has been broken. Of course, he is surrounded by a film crew who are obviously also thirsty. But Kerkeling lists the drinks on the table and says to the waitress: "Yeah, what do I know when she'll be back?"
It is the sense of humor that lurks everywhere in everyday life that has made Hape Kerkeling so popular. In addition to his outstanding talent for observing people, parodies, language and everything else.
Germany's most influential comedian of the last 30 years
Last Monday, December 9th, Germany's most influential comedian of the last 30 years, bestselling author and multi-artist completed his 60th year.
When celebrities such as Günther Jauch, Otto, Campino and Anke Engelke talk about the birthday boy with a smile on their faces in this documentary, in which Kerkeling talks about himself in a touching way, he must have done a lot right.
You can guess how he managed this from the charming self-moderation, which is not at all contrived, but comes across as friendly and intimate.
Kerkeling takes the film crew to his favorite city, Amsterdam. Both his mother's and father's families once belonged to the wealthy class here - before both became impoverished.
Hape later found a great love here, who died very young of Aids, as the man who was forced to come out in 1991 says today.
Older viewers will remember: in 1991, director Rosa von Praunheim told which German celebrities were "secretly" gay in a controversial episode of the RTL talk show "Der heisse Stuhl" (The Hot Chair), including Hape Kerkeling and Alfred Biolek.
Kerkeling's status as a child prodigy
One of Hape Kerkeling's characteristics is his status as a child prodigy. Even as a child, he showed his talent for parody and comedy - as can be seen in Caroline Link's wonderful fictionalization of "Der Junge muss an die frische Luft". In Passau, he was awarded the Scharfrichterbeil, a prize for up-and-coming cabaret artists, in 1983 while still at grammar school.
This was followed by the TV shows "Känguru", which the boy from the Ruhr area received at the age of 20 in early 1985, "Total Normal" and "Darüber lacht die Welt".
Total Normal" in particular, of which Radio Bremen produced just seven episodes between 1989 and 1991, is still regarded today as a visionary entertainment format that was way ahead of its time.
The famous "prank" with Kerkeling in a rather dissolute Queen Beatrix mask, when she drove up to Bellevue Palace for the state visit to Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker, is just as legendary as the cultural business satire "Hurz", which Kerkeling performed with his music partner Achim Hagemann.
Both "Total Normal" creative partner Hagemann and the show's editor, Birgit Reckmeyer, reminisce at length in an interview. This was followed in 1993 by the film "Kein Pardon" with the super hit "Das ganze Leben ist ein Quiz" (The whole of life is a quiz), which is still a style-defining film in terms of humor today.
According to Günther Jauch, there is still no wiser and more accurate film about the German entertainment industry, its humor and its penchant for slapstick.
"Give me some time: my chronicle of events"
Unlike other child prodigies, Hape Kerkeling did not make the mistake of riding his creative showpiece - parodies and unbounded TV entertainment - to death.
He withdrew from the comedy front at a relatively young age and worked in the background:
While he could still often be seen in TV "pranks", sketches or as a presenter of big TV galas in the 90s, things became quieter around Germany's top comedy talent from the noughties onwards. Following the removal of his gall bladder and a sudden hearing loss, he urgently needed some time out.
In the summer of 2001, Kerkeling made a 630-kilometre pilgrimage along the Way of St. James in northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela, which resulted in the book "Ich bin dann mal weg" (2006). It is one of the best-selling works in the German language, with around five million copies in print.
This was followed in 2014 by Hape Kerkeling's touching biography of a child and young person, "Der Junge muss an die frische Luft", which was made into a congenial film by Caroline Link in 2018. In the documentary, young actor Julius Weckauf, now 16 years old, talks about the casting and filming at the time.
Hape Kerkeling - the German humor prodigy
At the end of September, in anticipation of his own 60th birthday, so to speak, Hape Kerkeling's new book "Give me some time: My chronicle of events" was published.
In it, he not only describes key stages of his life, but also delves deep into the eventful history of his ancestors.
One can only hope that Hape Kerkeling - the German humor prodigy of yesteryear - will continue for many years to come as a clever, humanistic storyteller who is one of the few who still manages to create something like consensus and positive sentiment among Germans.
There could be a lot more to come after his 60th birthday. But the fact that you never know exactly what it will be - that is also what makes Hape Kerkeling so fascinating.
