Hape Kerkeling: I’ll be 60 then

Hape Kerkeling (60) is a special kind of entertainment legend. While similarly prominent TV veterans such as Thomas Gottschalk (74) or Stefan Raab (58) talk about rowdy boxing fights or scandalous old man statements in their old age , shortly before his 60th birthday he relaxedly published his latest book, “Give me some time”, in which he presented the astonishing findings of his intensive work in an entertaining way presented private genealogical research and traced his Dutch family roots back to the 12th century.

According to Kerkeling, the most astonishing finding is that he is most likely the great-grandson of the English King Edward VII (1841-1910) and would therefore be 111th in line to the British throne. His grandmother Bertha was apparently the illegitimate child of the royal’s affair with his great-grandmother during a spa stay. In an interview with “Zeit,” the humor expert asserted: “It’s funny, but not a joke.”

In his previous work “Paws from the Table!” From 2021, Kerkeling delivered a 300-page declaration of love to the cats in his life, with which he recalled his autobiographical record bestsellers “I’m gone then” (2006) and “The boy needs to get some fresh air” (2014). connected. Even as a book author, Hape Kerkeling is absolutely unpredictable, extremely successful and always good for absurd surprises.

The fact that the cult comedian has taken a more relaxed approach since 2014 and no longer has his own TV shows is met with general regret, but above all with respectful understanding. No other entertainer has etched himself into German television history and the collective memory with such subversive energy and physical effort as he has. Now he can treat himself to some fresh air and total normality away from the constant spotlight.

Hans-Peter Wilhelm Kerkeling, who was born on December 9, 1964 in Recklinghausen, experienced his wildest phase between 1985 and the year 2000, when he almost single-handedly appeared with comedy formats such as “Känguru”, “Total Normal” and “The World Laughs at It”. established new standards of anarcho-television.

From the very beginning he brought his extraordinary talent as a parodist and imitator into play. Kerkeling was able to credibly imitate not only dialects, but entire languages, and with this talent he slipped into countless bizarre roles, which he always carried out until the bitter end.

One of his most iconic pranks is his appearance as Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1991, when he managed to drive up to Berlin’s Bellevue Palace in a car in front of the camera before the real queen arrived and, in a Beatrix costume, complain about the bad situation to complain about the catering supply at the state reception.

In 2000, he smuggled himself into the CDU federal party conference in Osnabrück as a Saxon waiter in order to offer the future Chancellor Angela Merkel (70) a “goppagabana sundae” during her fiery speech. In 2009, in the legendary character of the Rhenish creep Horst Schlämmer, he finally pulled out all the stops and ran for office – at least in his film “Horst Schlämmer – I’m running!” – personally for the Chancellery. He also caused a sensation with films such as “Kein Pardon” (1993), “Club Las Piranjas” (1995) and “Samba in Mettmann” (2004).

After his last TV comedy format “Hallo Taxi” (2008), in which he frightened unsuspecting passengers as the greasy taxi driver Günther Warnke, was less successful and was canceled in 2008 after seven episodes, Hape Kerkeling announced his age in 2014 50 years later he finally retired from the TV business. Just three years earlier, he had been offered, for the second time in his career, to host the cult show “Wetten,dass…?” to take over, which he again refused. He would much rather, as he explained to Thomas Gottschalk, continue to pursue the “wispy diversity” of his artistic career with more books, film projects and quirky oddities.

In the , which Erste is showing as part of an extensive Kerkeling theme day on the occasion of his 60th birthday (December 9th at 8:15 p.m., then in the ARD media library), the entertainer reveals that he has been planning this retreat for many years had.

There he says: “From the very beginning, when I made my very first television show, I decided that I would do it until I was fifty. Because I always had the feeling that it had to do with a certain freshness and youthfulness. And I didn’t want to lose that on TV.” He would rather “have people say ‘It’s a shame he’s gone’ than have people say ‘When is he finally leaving?'”.

However, Hape Kerkeling has not completely disappeared from the scene. In addition to his successful book projects, he presented the seven-part travel magazine “Hape and the 7 Dwarf States” on Vox between 2021 and 2022, in which he visits small European states such as Malta, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Andorra and gets to the bottom of the historical roots of these countries. In 2023 he also took on the main role of the strange club entertainer Edwin.

Shortly before his 60th birthday, Kerkeling answered the question about a big TV comeback à la Stefan Raab with the following smug words: “Well, I’m certainly not going to punch a retired athlete in the face. I won’t do that.” However, a recent nightmare he had could indicate further television shows in the future. In the nightmare he hosted a Saturday evening show with Heidi Klum (51) – so he doesn’t completely rule out a return.