Last but not least: Hella von Sinnen turns 50
Twenty years in show business and still a big mouth: German artist, presenter and entertainer Hella von Sinnen turns 50.
For decades, comedy great Hella von Sinnen has been so present on German-language television that hardly anyone has been able to avoid forming an opinion about her. On February 2, blonde comedy great Kemper will be 50 years old. She has said things like: "That's the beauty of getting older, you get wiser." Have the years tamed the woman with the big mouth? "Of course, it's possible that you feel more like doing wild things when you're 30," she admits.
Back then, in 1988, she made her breakthrough on the still young German private television channel, together with Hugo Egon Balder in the RTL nonsense magazine "Alles nichts oder?!". At least once per show, von Sinnen stalked the camera and performed the "Tschaka-Tschaka" dance, which became her trademark. The feminist caused a sensation in the early 90s with "Weiber von Sinnen": she contrasted the naked breasts from Balder's "Tutti Frutti" with the "first erotic clips for women", chatted with celebrities about sex and infidelities and visited prostitutes.
Looking back, she still doesn't want to talk about breaking a taboo. "We just showed a little naked wiener," she says. She prefers to talk about her current "funny little projects": a book with her favorite Donald Duck stories, an art exhibition with cell phone photos. As a performing artist, she says, she enjoys it when something just hangs quietly on the wall in the evening and doesn't move. As a professional chatterbox, she is still a TV great - and proud of it: "It's not a given that you can be on TV as an entertainer for 20 years."
A few years ago, von Sinnen admitted her fear of getting older.
"When I turned 30, 40, it was terrible," she explained at the time. Faced with her next milestone birthday, she demonstrates composure: "I'm grateful that I can turn 50 and go through life in good health." Where did the change of heart come from? "My wife" - Cornelia Scheel, daughter of a former German president - "was fed up with all this 'pity, pity, a few years older again'," she says. So now she pulls herself together, makes an effort to enjoy every day and remain the old Hella.
(Image: Keystone)
Back then, in 1988, she made her breakthrough on the still young German private television channel, together with Hugo Egon Balder in the RTL nonsense magazine "Alles nichts oder?!". At least once per show, von Sinnen stalked the camera and performed the "Tschaka-Tschaka" dance, which became her trademark. The feminist caused a sensation in the early 90s with "Weiber von Sinnen": she contrasted the naked breasts from Balder's "Tutti Frutti" with the "first erotic clips for women", chatted with celebrities about sex and infidelities and visited prostitutes.
Looking back, she still doesn't want to talk about breaking a taboo. "We just showed a little naked wiener," she says. She prefers to talk about her current "funny little projects": a book with her favorite Donald Duck stories, an art exhibition with cell phone photos. As a performing artist, she says, she enjoys it when something just hangs quietly on the wall in the evening and doesn't move. As a professional chatterbox, she is still a TV great - and proud of it: "It's not a given that you can be on TV as an entertainer for 20 years."
A few years ago, von Sinnen admitted her fear of getting older.
"When I turned 30, 40, it was terrible," she explained at the time. Faced with her next milestone birthday, she demonstrates composure: "I'm grateful that I can turn 50 and go through life in good health." Where did the change of heart come from? "My wife" - Cornelia Scheel, daughter of a former German president - "was fed up with all this 'pity, pity, a few years older again'," she says. So now she pulls herself together, makes an effort to enjoy every day and remain the old Hella.
(Image: Keystone)
