Rex Gildo: The pop star tragically died 25 years ago

On October 23, 1999, Rex Gildo fell two stories from the window of his Munich apartment, and three days later he died in hospital from his serious internal injuries. It is still unclear whether the singer took his own life after an argument with his assistant or accidentally fell into a state of alcohol and drug intoxication. The nature of the relationship that the two had with each other is still the subject of numerous speculations.

At the time of his fatal defenestration, Rex Gildo’s career had already reached its sad final phase. Just a few hours earlier, he had made his last appearance in the “Wohnparadies” furniture store in the Hessian town of Bad Vilbel. The golden times when he could fill large halls with the performance of his hits like “Fiesta Mexicana”, “The Last Sirtaki” or “Marie, the last dance is just for you” were clearly over.

His heyday was the 1960s and 1970s, when he initially enjoyed success in the entertainment industry alongside partners such as Conny Froboess and Gitte Haenning, before becoming one of the biggest pop stars of his time as a solo artist. In the following decades, the former top entertainer was no longer able to build on his successes, despite a few desperate comeback attempts.

As he grew older, the always tanned singer with the radiant white smile and jet-black toupee increasingly lost his former aura as a hip-swaying “Sexy Rexy”. If the press was still interested in him at all, it was primarily in his alleged problems.

After Gildo’s mysterious death, speculation about the singer’s possible homosexuality resumed for a while. The pop star himself always denied this during his lifetime, even to those close to him.

Fred Miekley – uncle or lover?

The focus of the speculation was Rex Gildo’s relationship with his discoverer and decades-long manager Fred Miekley (d. 1988). Although the two were not related, Gildo officially identified the older mentor, with whom he had lived under the same roof for years, as his uncle.

The fact that the pop singer married his cousin Marion Ohlsen in 1974, but concealed the relationship and portrayed the bride as a mere chance acquaintance, gave further fuel to rumors about a suspected marriage of convenience. Even after an unofficial separation, the two remained married.

Rex Gildo’s mysterious private life is also reflected on his crisp white gravestone in Munich’s Ostfriedhof. He is buried there under his real name Ludwig Franz Hirtreiter – together with his presumed life partner Fred Miekley and his cousin and wife Hirtreiter.

“Rex Gildo – The Last Dance” reinvigorates discussion

After it was quiet about Rex Gildo for many years, in 2022 director Rosa von Praunheim reignited the discourse about his sexual orientation with his semi-documentary film drama “Rex Gildo – the Last Dance”. In the work, the prominent filmmaker and queer activist makes it clear from the start that he has no doubts about the stubbornly hidden homosexuality of the fallen pop icon.

In an original mix of freely staged feature film scenes – including Ben Becker portraying the presumed life partner Fred Miekley – contemporary witness interviews with companions and colorful TV archive material, von Praunheim paints the picture of a man who kept his true self secret from the public to the point of total self-denial , to adapt to the normative pressures of society.

Even if the film and its implied outing would certainly have met with rejection from the late artist, it still points to a general problem that not only homosexual pop stars had to struggle with until the end of the 1960s: it was only in 1969 that the film was among the The National Socialists formulated “Gay Paragraph” 175, which rigorously punished sexual acts between men, but defused it to the extent that sex between men aged 21 and over was no longer punishable.

If Rex Gildo had confessed to a possible homosexual orientation, it would not only have ended his young career, but also landed him in prison. You can’t really blame him for not wanting to do that and preferring to celebrate his “Fiesta Mexicana” unmolested. The last dance, also when it comes to the sovereignty of interpretation over his private life, is ultimately only for him.