Wotan Wilke Möhring about Corona "I thought it was really bad that there were such hoarders"
Actor Wotan Wilke Möhring loves to learn and discuss. In the film "Blackout bei Wellmanns", he shows what could happen to our electricity-dependent society without power from the socket.
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- "I'm interested in how the world works": actor Wotan Wilke Möhring loves to learn, form an opinion and discuss.
- In the new TV comedy "Blackout bei Wellmanns", the 57-year-old hilariously shows what could happen in our electricity-dependent society without power from the socket.
- "If the electricity doesn't work, then it's over, because we all hand over our skills to the electronics. I learned a lot from the movie," says Möhring.
Wotan Wilke Möhring has never really been a man of quiet tones, not even during the pandemic. As part of the #allesdichtmachen campaign, he expressed his displeasure with some of the coronavirus protection measures.
Now the much sought-after actor can be seen in "Blackout bei Wellmanns" (in the ZDF media library), a comedy that takes the "prepper" scene to task.
Möhring plays an engineer who sets up a parallel universe in the forest out of panic about power cuts. The 57-year-old, who is also known to TV audiences as Hamburg "Tatort" detective Thorsten Falke, says that hoarding is not his thing.
It's clear to Möhring that sharing is more important than securing his own pantry. In a conversation about solidarity, useless rules and the constant desire for something new, the East Westphalian-born Grimme Award winner is likeably open and good-humored, with snappy answers and without pondering for long.
Wotan Wilke Möhring, how do you prepare yourself for possible emergencies? Do you stockpile supplies in the cellar?
No, I don't hoard anything. I'm not the type for that. If we were to implement the precautionary measures that the German government actually has in place, we would all need an extra cellar room just for the water. But what I could do is grow things myself, I know how to do that.
Are you a gardener?
Not a gardener, but I like being outside and I'm interested in how the world works, and of course that includes having learned as a child what crop rotation is and when it's best to sow (laughs).
Is that a legacy of your Waldorf school days?
I think it has something to do with that, but also with the fact that I once worked for a farmer as a child and always wanted to know what each plant was called and whether you could eat it.
Do you also enjoy cooking?
I can cook and make something out of very little. But you shouldn't imagine that I'm sitting in a highly polished stainless steel kitchen with all kinds of appliances and ingredients.
What is a must for movie catering?
Good bread, that's always in short supply. It's often just useless, soggy white flour stuff. Good bread - that's what Germany is known for.
Flour became a luxury a few years ago. How did you feel about hoarding during the coronavirus crisis?
I thought it was really bad to see hoarders using their elbows, because that means you're buying something from someone else. It wasn't like at the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, where it was because of the supply chain, but simply because people were hoarding 20 kilos of flour at home. I would have thought the idea of solidarity was different. And that was fueled by the government. You didn't get the feeling that they were saying: "People, stay calm."
Why do you think people reacted like that?
That's what really interested me: Why do people become like that, from one day to the next? It's actually psychology: the hamster buyer runs off, the other person then buys too, because they think the hamster buyer has a knowledge advantage that they don't know about, and then think, I'd better do the same. Imagine watching a video of yourself running into the market and blowing everyone away. You'd sink to the floor with shame.
Has society changed because of Corona?
(Reflects) I don't know. Corona has brought something out of people that I thought we might have already survived. This total panic, this crazy feeling of driving alone in a car with a mask on. Fear is always bad, and it was omnipresent. People do grotesque and irrational things out of fear, and I found it amazing how quickly civilization collapses or laws are suspended because of a virus that we don't know much about. You could see how fragile society is.
Do you also have positive memories of that time?
For me at least, one positive was that I simply had a lot of time to spend with my family. I have three children, the sun was shining, we could do whatever we wanted, which was great. I found it interesting that you can stop the world after all, even though it is always said that the market must continue. In other words, we can stop climate change, and we can do it now!
What do you mean by that?
GDP may have fallen by three points, but you can stop everything, close the smokestacks for a while and the environment can recover. That's exactly what's happened in the last few weeks. We have even seen the changes on Earth from space. Our economy and market economy are partly subject to the laws of nature. People always say, that's just the way it is, there's nothing we can do about it. No! Gravity is a law of nature, but not our market.
Even wars, laws, borders, flags that we fight for - we humans came up with all of that. That's why you can't say: nothing can be done. Yes you can, just stop! Every day, people abide by thousands of rules, some of which they find repugnant, absurd and grotesque, simply because they exist. But they are all man-made, so we can change and adapt them at any time.
Why did you want to make a comedy on this subject and not a thriller?
It was important to me to show how people become so-called preppers. The pandemic was their time and these people felt vindicated. My character is someone who knows professionally how the electricity grid works. Most of us don't realize that the energy supply is just as much a market and a machine as everything else. And how fragile the system is. We are increasingly turning to digitalization and are more at the mercy of it than ever before. If the electricity doesn't work, then it's over, because we're handing over all our skills to electronics. I learned a lot from the movie.
You always say you take something away from every shoot. What was it this time?
Of course, I dealt with how the electricity market works and how we are set up in terms of supply. I researched everything I say in the film myself and totally immersed myself in the subject matter. Germany has more than enough electricity from wind and solar energy, but we can't get it stored or as a route to the south. The operators of a wind turbine receive hundreds of thousands of euros per year, regardless of whether the wheel is turning or not. You can earn money with it, it's a huge market. But if there is no wind and no sun, it becomes difficult.
How do you feel about having a cell phone at your ear and other technical gadgets at home? Aren't you also making yourself dependent?
No. Otherwise we lose all our other skills. My standard saying is: "Has anyone seen my cell phone?" (laughs). When I go hiking with the children, for example, I don't need my cell phone at all. It doesn't exist!
But you can't just forbid them to do it, you have to offer an alternative. Three children playing with sticks by the stream don't miss their cell phones at all. Of course, you have to be a role model yourself. Nevertheless, my cell phone is my main work tool, completely replacing my laptop, but I don't always have to listen to it or be on social media if I don't want to.
What happens when your children take out their cell phones while eating?
They wouldn't even think of it. There's nothing worse than walking into a room and there are four children on their cell phones.
You once said that you are not a helicopter father and have a relatively free parenting style. What can your children still get you worked up about?
There are a thousand things, children are inventive (laughs). There are rules, of course. The end of the discussion "Why should I put my jacket on?" is sometimes: "Because I said so." Young children don't have the advantage of knowing that if you don't wear a jacket, you'll get sick. Do I feel like nursing the child for two weeks? No, I don't.
Therefore: "Put the jacket on!" You don't have to discuss everything with children, especially the very young ones, who aren't on an equal footing at the time. It's based on trust. They need to know: Everything that dad and mom say is good for me. Whether I understand it or want it is something else.
How important are school grades to you?
My children are all at Waldorf school, where fortunately there are no grades, but verbal assessments that say a lot more about where things are or aren't going well. The grades say nothing about a child's knowledge, but only whether they can reproduce what they have learned. That's easy to achieve, and that's why you can make a brief effort.
You played the violin for twelve years, you were a paratrooper, electrician, model, bouncer, musician, actor ...
... and a student. I studied social and business communication in Berlin. But that's not so important (laughs).
What drives you to try out so many different things? A spirit of adventure?
Yes, exactly. I quickly get bored when I see: That's actually it now, there's not much more to come. That's why I've had my current job for 20 years, because it satisfies this urge to keep trying things out. As an actor, you're always someone else, and that's exactly what I need.
Is there anything else you would like to do outside of acting?
A thousand things. Anything I don't know yet, I'd like to try out. There's no reason to say you're out of that age. If you want to do something, you should do it. Specifically, there is the dream of a big adventure trip with the children, perhaps even with each of them individually, that the children will remember. Traveling around the world in a camper van with the children for a year is one wish before they break away.
If you were king of Germany, what would you like to abolish or change?
A lot of things. I would question all these rules and reduce the drip-drip of bureaucracy. It was created a long time ago and you have to look at what is still important. Then I would make politicians pay tax on their salaries.
And I would let the population represent itself in the Bundestag: a butcher, two bakers, four Turks and an Albanian. I would mirror society as it is in the Bundestag. Maybe I could even proclaim "mother" as a profession - which job would be more important? I would promote what is really important much more. Much more money needs to be invested in research and youth, and not in the military.
