Karlheinz Böhm: Ten years since his death

Anger. This violent outburst, which in its aggressive form can become a rage, is an emotion that makes other people uncomfortable, repulsed or frightened. Anger is not perceived positively – and the angry person certainly isn’t. If a man claims that pure anger was the decisive driving force behind a change in his life for the better, then the suspicion is obvious: this person is insane or very brave or both.

Karlheinz Böhm (1928-2014) was not crazy, he was brave. Overnight he broke out of the lavish comfort zone of his life as a wealthy artist and put himself at the service of the poorest of the poor. This radical turn, to which he was driven by an immense anger about “the injustice between rich and poor”, outlasted his life. Böhm died on May 29, 2014 at the age of 86.

Even ten years later, he is still known for his foundation “Menschen für Menschen”, an aid organization that has helped and continues to help millions of poor people in Ethiopia. In the first 30 years alone, “Menschen für Menschen” collected around 415 million euros in donations under the leadership of Karlheinz Böhm.

The “Sissi” films made Karlheinz Böhm famous

Of course, there is also the other Karlheinz Böhm, the attractive actor who can regularly be seen on television alongside Germany’s favorite film woman: In the three “Sissi” films with the young Romy Schneider (1938-1982) he played the husband of Emperor Franz Joseph I from 1955 to 1957. This is how he became famous.

He was actually born into a celebrity. His father, Karl Böhm (1894-1981), was a world-famous conductor from Graz, and his mother, Thea Linhard (1903-1981), was a celebrated soprano, including at the Munich State Opera. The family always lived wherever their father was engaged. This is how the Austrian Karlheinz Böhm was born on March 16, 1928 in Darmstadt, Hesse, where Karl Böhm worked as General Music Director.

The young Böhm’s other stops were Hamburg and Dresden, where Karl Böhm directed the Semperoper from 1934 to 1943 with the protection of Adolf Hitler. In 1943 he went to Vienna, where he became head of the State Opera. Karl Böhm was considered a wards of Hitler, and after the Second World War he was initially banned from performing. Nevertheless, he sent his son to a Swiss boarding school in 1942, supposedly to protect him from the influence of the National Socialists.

Karl Böhm was a larger-than-life father figure for his son, who continued his career after the war and became one of the best conductors in the world with the Vienna Philharmonic. This difficult man, who was actually a lawyer with a doctorate before devoting himself entirely to music, was both a role model and a disciplinarian for his son. Although he later had a great career as an actor, Karlheinz Böhm was never able to reach the heights of his father as an artist.

He was denied success in the USA

At first he wanted to follow his parents’ example and become a musician, a pianist. As a teenager he even played for the piano virtuoso Wilhelm Backhaus (1884-1969), whose opinion was sobering: “I would have expected a little more from a son of Böhm.” After graduating from high school he studied English, German and art history, but dropped out to take acting lessons in Vienna.

And he made a career. In the theater and in film. Karlheinz Böhm made his breakthrough in 1955 in the “Sissi” trilogy as Emperor Franz Joseph I alongside the enchanting young Romy Schneider. Like her, he then tried to escape the bittersweet image that his role had defined him in. Romy went to Paris, Karlheinz Böhm dared to make the leap to the USA and played a female murderer in the thriller “Eyes of Fear” (1960) directed by Michael Powell (1905-1990). A psychologically brilliant film, but one that was rejected by critics and audiences alike because of its oppressive content. Today “Eyes of Fear” is considered a masterpiece, but back then nobody wanted to see Sissi’s Franzl as a psychopathic killer.

After this failure and five rather disappointing film projects, Böhm returned to Europe in the mid-1960s – and was rediscovered by director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982). Böhm shone in four films for him, and his comeback was brilliant in the psychological thriller “Martha” (1974), in which he played a sadistic husband. In total, he made over 45 films.

Fighting poverty in Africa

Working with Fassbinder also sharpened Böhm’s socio-political worldview. During a vacation in Kenya, a local hotel employee took him home with him. The actor saw a level of poverty that he had previously not been able to even begin to imagine. He felt “tremendous anger about the gigantic discrepancy between rich and poor on our shared planet Earth.” This confrontation gave rise to a completely new purpose in life: Böhm decided to fight against poverty in Africa.

As a guest on the ZDF show “Wetten, dass..?” on May 16, 1981, he bet that not even one in three viewers would donate one mark, one Swiss franc or seven Austrian schillings to people in need in the Sahel region. He himself promised to dedicate his future life to the poor people of Africa if he lost the bet. Böhm won his bet, “only” the equivalent of 600,000 euros was donated, but this sum was so encouraging for him that he still paid off his bet. He gave up acting and founded the “Menschen für Menschen” foundation to alleviate the suffering in Ethiopia.

: “I was and remain an actor. I just took off the costume and the mask and now I play myself – with the means of expression that I have learned. I tell people in Europe what I saw in Ethiopia and what touched me. And I try to touch them so that they trust me and give me money so that I can do my job.”

With his foundation, Böhm built over 300 schools, promoted sustainable agricultural projects and fought for equal rights for women. For almost 30 years he spent several months a year in Ethiopia; in the capital Addis Ababa, a square (Karlsplatz) was named after him, and in 2003 he was given honorary Ethiopian citizenship.

Karlheinz Böhm was married four times

In Ethiopia he also met his fourth wife, the agricultural expert Almaz Teshome (59), whom he married in 1991 and with whom he has two children. Before that, he was married for three years in his first marriage to Elisabeth Zonewa in 1954; the couple had a daughter, Sissy. His second marriage (1958-1962) to the singer and actress Gudula Blau (84) produced three children, including the actress Kristina Böhm (65). His third marriage was to the Polish star Barbara Lass (1940-1995), who was previously married to Roman Polanski (90). Their daughter also had a career in front of the camera: Katharina Böhm (59).

He spent his last years, which were marred by Alzheimer’s disease, in Grödig near Salzburg. That is where he died. His life’s work, the association “Menschen für Menschen”, has survived his death and continues to set itself the task of “sustainably improving the living conditions of people in rural Ethiopia” – in accordance with Karlheinz Böhm’s motto: “There is no first, second or third world. We all live on one and the same planet, for which we share responsibility.”

He described Ethiopia as his true home. There he wanted to “one day return to the nature from which I came”. He found his final resting place in an honorary grave in Salzburg – embedded in Ethiopian soil.