Rolf Schimpf: Actor from “Der Alte” died at 100 years

Rolf Schimpf was “the old man” for around 20 years. He went on a criminal hunting in Munich until old age as the main commissioner Leo Kress for ZDF. He stopped in 2007. The reason: the growing age difference between the role and himself. “If you are 82, you have to say inhibitions that you were 65 and be shortly before the pension,” he had explained his exit at the time. After that it became quiet around the Berlin -born, who had moved to Munich decades ago with his wife, the actress Ilse Zielstorff. Now Schimpf died on Saturday at the age of 100, almost 10 years after his wife, as his good friend Detlef Vetten said.

Schimpf had still celebrated his 100th birthday on November 14th – in a small circle with good food, white sausages and non -alcoholic wheat beer. And very important: a factor cake, with chocolate and decorated with the number 100 made of red marzipan. A temptation that the actor could not resist, as Vetten reported at the time: “He already had the 1 in his hand and bitten them!” Says Vetten.

Even with 100, Schimpf was still “the old man” for his fans, so much he was connected to the role. What did that do with him? “If someone has a revolver in their hands and talks about a pistol, then it tears me,” said Schimpf. In his investigative experience, he had so great confidence that he would undoubtedly trust himself to solve a murder even in real life, he said once, albeit more joke. In fact, Schimpf had learned a lot about police work over the decades. “I just imagine that I would actually be a criminal officer without, of course, too civil servant,” he described his attitude to the role in the internationally successful crime series.

Schimpf already brought an important property for police work, as colleagues say. “I admired him how he kept his age with which iron discipline he fought through days when he wasn’t doing so well,” recalled Pierre Sanoussi-Bliss. In the series, as an investigator Axel Richter, he had played next to Schimpf for a good ten years and also learned to appreciate the mischievous charm of the older one. On the occasion of the milestone birthday in November, he praised: “As a colleague, Rolf was really the very first cream”.

When Schimpf started as “the old man” in 1986, he had already gained plenty of acting experience. He has stood on stage and in front of the camera since the 1950s. In the ARD crime series “Tatort” he played as well as in almost 50 episodes of the crime series “Soko 5113”. He owed a lot to the Munich producer Helmut Ringelmann, who had shaped entertainment television with success formats such as “Derrick” or “the Commissioner”. In 1984 he got Scold for the drama series “Mensch Bachmann”, which ran on Saturday evening on ZDF.

In 1986 the role followed that the actor should shape like hardly anyone else. In the role of chief commissioner Leo Kress, he inherited the extremely popular Siegfried Lowitz alias Erwin Köster as “the old” – and remained loyal to the cult series for around 20 years. She made him known worldwide, from Italy or France to Abu Dhabi, Brazil and South Africa.

Schimpf had actually only chose acting by chance. Actually, he wanted to become a doctor, but did not get a place of study after the Second World War. So he tried the forest sciences, after all he loved fishing and hunting. But the passion for his hobbies was not enough to inspire him for his studies. It was too exhausting and too long for him, Schimpf recalled. In the end he ended up at the theater and became an actor. “Was there’S then ran, then I knew where I belong! “

In his last years of life, it was quiet about dirty. In 2010 he and his wife moved to a noble senior residence in Munich. You should still have five years to enjoy life there relaxed. In 2015 Ilse Zielstorff died. A difficult blow for Schimpf, after almost 50 happy years. “I’m still biting around. It is difficult to be alone,” he told the “Bild” newspaper one year after her death. In 2023 a difficult decision for the then 99-year-old: Schimpf had to give up his two-room apartment in the senior residence, for financial reasons, as his supervisor said at the time.

What remains is the memory of an actor who always looked lovable and subtle when he appeared. Despite his success, Schimpf always remained modest. “Fametfulness is a matter of luck. You have to try to deliver decent work,” he said when asked what he would advise young actors. “If you are lucky, a nice task comes up. But then you have to grab. I did it and I am satisfied today.”

Note: This article has been updated several times.