Rudolph Moshammer: The fashion designer died 20 years ago

“Whoever wears my fashion, wears my feelings.” That was the philosophy of Rudolph Moshammer (1940-2005). The clothes that he sold in his shop on Munich’s Maximilianstrasse were expensive, colorful, eye-catching – but never as eye-catching as the Moshammer character himself. The people of Munich loved their “Mosi”, their colorful dog, but also made fun of him . On January 14, 2005, his life came to an abrupt end.

Rudolph Moshammer was born on September 27, 1940, the son of an insurance entrepreneur. At first the family was doing very well, but then the father lost his job. Richard Moshammer hid his unemployment from his family and became addicted to alcohol. In his desperation, his father repeatedly threatened to “exterminate” the family, Moshammer reported in 2001.

Mother and son eventually moved into their own apartment. After training as a retail clerk, Moshammer initially worked in a fabric store. With the help of wealthy supporters, he managed to open his own boutique “Carnaval de Venise” in 1968. He was one of the first to invite Munich’s high society to opulent parties – including a rented cheetah. The most influential Munich residents quickly came and went from the men’s fashion store – and the cult figure Moshammer was born. “Of course that was the greatest fulfillment of all in life, that you went from hopeless to becoming a big name,” said the fashion designer in his portrait.

Closely associated with Rudolph Moshammer in public: his mother Else (1908-1993), who was also a figure due to her purple hair. After her death in 1993, Moshammer had her buried in a mausoleum. From then on he only appeared with his dog Daisy. Moshammer carried the Yorkshire terrier, always decorated with a bow, with him everywhere – he even dedicated a book to her. He also appeared with her in “Tatort”. But as reported, there was no one Daisy: over the course of his life, he owned four dogs with that name.

Moshammer surrounded himself with the rich and famous. Wherever he appeared with his jet-black wig in King Ludwig II style, there was cheering. But despite all this luxury, he didn’t forget the poorest people in society. The work for the homeless was particularly close to his heart, influenced by his father’s later homelessness. He supported the homeless newspaper “BISS” with generous donations and also presented himself as an advertising face for the project. He also invited homeless people to a Christmas dinner every year and always met them at eye level, as participants from back then said.

But as is well known, there were also dark sides in Rudolph Moshammer’s glittering world. He was not always taken seriously in public; he was too often parodied. He received ridicule and malice, especially after his participation in the Eurovision Song Contest preliminary round in 2001, where he came in third-to-last place. It was said that he was too artificial, inauthentic, a ridiculous fictional character. But Moshammer saw it differently. He doesn’t play a role: “I’m just Moshammer,” he emphasized in the “ARD Life Lines”. “I live purely according to emotions, according to the feeling of my heart.”

Rudolph Moshammer could not really show who his heart really beat for during his lifetime. It was an open secret among his acquaintances that he drove his Rolls Royce through the streets of Munich at night and invited young men to his home. “If you have to buy love, you’re finished”, . And yet he paid his acquaintances to spend time with him.

This finally became his undoing on January 14, 2005. In his villa in Grünwald there is said to have been a dispute over 2,000 euros with Herisch A., whom he had previously picked up at the main train station. The then 25-year-old assistant cook then took a telephone cable and strangled Moshammer. A short time later he was convicted because of DNA evidence. He spent 18 years in prison for this and was deported to his home country of Iraq in 2023.

Moshammer’s death caused a wave of consternation, and his double life dominated the media. “He was a dazzling unique figure in an increasingly anonymous society,” (78) the deceased. His burial in Munich’s Ostfriedhof, next to his mother, resembled a state funeral. Nevertheless, many of Moshammer’s former admirers from the chic crowd stayed away after such an inglorious death. Instead, the “ordinary people”, the “BISS” sellers – who remember Moshammer as more than just a quirky bird of paradise – came.