Désirée Nosbusch turns 60: a career full of crashes and comebacks

On her 60th birthday, Désirée Nosbusch can look back on a career that has spanned almost fifty years. The linguistic talent, who was born in 1965 in Esch an der Alzette, Luxembourg, was already a presenter on Radio Luxembourg at the age of 12 and quickly rose to become one of the most famous teen stars of the 1980s. The early success opened many doors for her, but, as Nosbusch increasingly revealed in recent years, it also had dramatic dark sides.

Désirée Nosbusch was discovered by none other than Frank Elstner (82), who played a key role in shaping Radio Luxembourg’s programming in the 1960s and 1970s. As she reported to “Zeit Magazin”, she and a school friend were interviewed at the station for a children’s program. After the appointment, Elstner came up to her enthusiastically and asked her for her telephone number. As things progressed, things really spiraled: “Three weeks later I was asked if I would like to interview Pierre Brice for the children’s program. And six months later I had my own show.”

At the beginning of the 1980s, Désirée Nosbusch became the first young presenter in German television history and presented popular youth programs such as “Hits from the School Desk”, “Hits with Desirée” and “Musicbox” on ZDF with an unusually cheeky style. The fact that teenagers moderate for teenagers was considered a sensation in the times of Dieter Thomas Heck’s (1937-2018) “Hitparade”. Pretty soon the beautiful young talent was celebrated like a pop star on Bravo.

As Nosbusch has revealed in interviews over the past few years, but also in her autobiography “Finally Not Arrived Yet”, which was published in 2022, the first problems began in this euphoric beginning of her career. The inexperienced teenager got into a relationship with her manager Georg Bossert (1939-1995), who was 26 years her senior and which, according to her, was characterized by manipulation and sexual abuse.

“This man raped me. I didn’t want it, and I didn’t know what love was. And after that I had a hard time learning it,” Gala quotes from her autobiography. “We were definitely never a couple. There were years of torment.” In 1981, Bossert even left his wife and children for the unequal liaison with the growing child star; it was not until 1990 that Nosbusch was able to free himself from his grasp.

The year 1981 also marked the time when Nosbusch’s image as an innocent and always cheerful TV star began to crack. Under Bossert’s influence, she made her acting debut in the film “After Midnight” (1981). The fact that Nosbusch was seen naked for several minutes in the Nazi drama led to numerous headlines – and to the loss of the existing contracts with her broadcaster.

In “Zeit” she looked back on this career slump with the following words: “I was 16. Everything had happened so quickly that I felt controlled by others, I could no longer say yes or no. And as far as nudity is concerned, I was lied to. I tried to get an injunction against the film – in vain.” After that, she was no longer acceptable for ZDF, after all, she was supposed to be “the figurehead for young people.”

However, her leading role in the horror film “The Fan” (1982) caused an even greater stir the following year. In this work, too, she let go of all her clothes again, and in the role of the schoolgirl Simone, she dismembered the male lead in order to then eat him with relish.

To escape the shitstorm, Nosbusch dropped out of school at 16 and moved to New York to attend a private acting school for four years. In 1984 she made a brilliant TV comeback from there when she was unexpectedly commissioned to moderate the “Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson (now the “Eurovision Song Contest”). The decisive factor was that the then nineteen-year-old prodigy spoke Luxembourgish and German She was also fluent in English, French, Italian and Spanish. The unexpected job brought her fame across Europe, and her career as a presenter took off again.

In the following years she also used her acting skills in TV series such as “A Case for Two” and “Praxis Bülowbogen”. There were also larger film roles in mostly rather shallow film comedies such as “ADAM” (1988) or “Ex und hopp – A nasty game about love, money and beer” (1991). Only after the turn of the millennium would Nosbusch’s roles become increasingly more demanding.

The actress finally received late satisfaction in 2019 when she was awarded the renowned Grimme Prize for her leading role as a busy investment banker in the drama series “Bad Banks”. In “Zeit Magazin” she was extremely pleased about it. “For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m getting recognition for the cause that I always wanted to stand for,” she said there. She now gives the following wisdom to her two now grown children, both of whom have become musicians: “I had to turn 54 before recognition came. Believe in your dream.”

As she reported in an interview with “Bild”, her career had not developed quite as well as she had imagined. Apart from unattractive role offers, they also found their jobs as presenters increasingly unsatisfactory. “I canceled a lot of things, even though I would certainly have had to work more for financial reasons,” said Nosbusch. “But really another gala? Another evening dress? Here, too, I was always afraid of repeating myself. Every now and then I felt like a fire extinguisher.”

After completing her directing studies, Nosbusch took a very personal step forward in 2011 by founding her own film production company “Deal Productions” and created new fields of activity. After her late comeback with “Bad Banks”, her directorial debut “Poison – A Love Story” last year marked another highlight of her new and more self-determined life.

The tragic relationship drama celebrated its world premiere at the 41st Munich Film Festival in July 2024 and was consistently well received by critics. On January 30th, just a few days after her 60th birthday, Désirée Nosbusch’s pride and joy will be released in cinemas nationwide.