For decades they were a model couple: The actress Maria Furtwängler (55) and the publisher Hubert Burda (82) announced their separation after more than 30 years of marriage. This was announced by the spokeswoman for Furtwangler on Monday. “Maria Furtwängler and Hubert Burda have been going their separate ways for some time. They are friends and family members, also in view of the two children they have together, and will continue to do so in the future.”
Beyond this statement, the couple did not release any further details on the matter. The two spouses have a daughter and a son together: Elisabeth Furtwängler (30) is a musician, her brother Jacob Burda (32) works as a digital entrepreneur.
The actress, who comes from a well-known family of artists, and the successful media entrepreneur have been among Germany’s best-known married couples since their marriage in 1991. Nevertheless, the two have managed to keep their family life largely out of the public eye over the years.
But there is a remarkable interview that Furtwängler gave to “Spiegel” in 2012. She said there that she herself had also become a self-confident woman through her marriage to the multimillionaire: “I have an extremely strong and self-confident man in whose shadow you can easily become the environment, the satellite. It sounds incredibly cliché now, but this may have made it all the more necessary to find myself and my own world.”
Marrying her was Hubert Burda’s second marriage. When the couple celebrated their wedding in 1991, Furtwangler was 25 and the publisher a good quarter of a century older. The two had known each other for a few years, the first child was already born, the second on the way.
Star role in “Tatort”
The award-winning Maria Furtwängler, great-niece of the famous conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, had been in front of the camera since she was a little girl and had her big breakthrough in 1987 with the ARD early evening series “The Happy Family”. Her prime role is the “crime scene” television commissioner Charlotte Lindholm. With around 30 cases in 20 years, Maria Furtwängler is always a quota guarantor and has also made a name for herself as a television producer. In addition to her TV life, she is also a doctor and has long been a public advocate for women’s rights.
Maria Furtwängler founded the MaLisa Foundation with her daughter Elisabeth in 2016. This is committed at international level to combating violence against women and girls. In Germany, the foundation is also committed to social diversity and overcoming restrictive role models. Again and again, MaLisa initiatives draw attention to grievances, such as the image of women in the media.
The Burda media group makes billions in sales every year: These include the magazine “Focus”, the people magazine “Bunte”, the fashion magazine “Burda Style” and the fashion magazine “Elle”. The media company is 100 percent family-owned, Hubert Burda is the owner together with his children: Jacob Burda and Elisabeth Furtwängler have each held 37.5 percent of the group holding company since 2017.
Source: Nachrichten
