Mr. Elstner, she had the desire that we meet for this interview in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich. What do you associate with this place?
If I’m here, I still have the feeling that my mother could come around the corner. This Hotel was like a second home for you. And her spirit is still there. We have spent much happy time, if you stand in Munich in front of the camera.
do you Remember the last Time?
That was about a year ago. We wanted to have as much time as possible with each other. That is why we shared during the day, even a room. She sat on the bed and got to her texts while I worked on the Computer photos. From time to time, she looked up and me waving. There’s a kind of symbiosis between us was always. I had to look at her and knew immediately what she’s up to. As a mother-son relationship is a great gift. Such memories I cherish now.
her mother died in April of cancer. How are you today?
It blows me back and forth. Every day is different. This morning I looked at a few old photos. This has made me very sad. I didn’t think I would be able to speak to you here today. But right now it is okay. I think as long as I’m with my mother, she’s gone. But I’m afraid to get the gear in your empty apartment in Frankfurt.
It is the home of their Childhood.
In the apartment I grew up there, has drawn me to my mother. There is even my old nursery. On the bed, my old Teddy is. Wearing my baby clothes. Now I must in a few days in the apartment, to settle some things. The sliding, I like a load in front of me. But there is another reason why I am fled after the death of first my girlfriend. In front of my apartment in Cologne and my mother in Frankfurt have posted the Paparazzi.
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Intimate connection – Elsner moved their son, 10, on her own
©Dominik Elstner
The public mourning ceremony in Munich, came people from the whole of Germany, to say good-bye to her mother.
The great compassion has touched me very much. To me strange people, what did you mean my mother write, and speak me your condolences. The Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier has me offered his condolences in a letter, the foreign Minister Heiko Maas also. But also many friends of my mother are with me now to the side, which I had not before, perhaps not so on the note. I will not be left alone. This is also the legacy of my mother.
The death of her mother has surprised many people. No one had an inkling of their disease.
she didn’t want to stand for as a sick woman in Public. There were only a very few close friends who knew. I remember how we once stood in front of her apartment and a couple of neighbors seeing something strange. My mother said: Why look at me so pityingly? This does not help me at all. She wanted no pity. She wanted to live.
Since when did your mother know that she is sick?
for some time. I was present at the inquiry, when she got the diagnosis. Breast cancer, a little later came up leukemia to. But the Doctors said at the time, you would have a good chance to survive.
what has been the reaction of your mother that?
she said: Okay, I’m probably not immortal. I am now wounded. Now I have to save something to do, to show respect to me, to me. She has started a cancer therapy. I was under the impression that it would go better again.
the impression?
Yes, my mother avoided talking about her condition. She never complained. You probably don’t want to burden me. They let themselves down but also not of the disease dominate. They took the matter seriously, but gave her no real importance. She always said: If I talk so much about this Tumor, I stachele him, and he eats me even more.
Instead, her mother continued to work. Three weeks before her death, she was still standing in front of the camera.
That was one of their greatest Fears: that they can’t work any more. She wanted to play until the end. My mother was in the core of her heart is still a child. They had strong energy, the other radiated. I’ve noticed that my mother had broken down somewhat in recent years. But you could still go extremely to the front. A few years ago, I accompanied her as a photographer for the star about the Berlinale. As she danced four in the morning still on the Film-parties, while I was already done completely and just go to bed wanted.
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“you loved him very much, without revealing themselves to him ever,” says Dominik Elstner about his mother, and DJ Hell
©Dominik Elstner
The shooting of their last film “Long live the Queen” she had to cancel at the beginning of April of this year.
The Extreme: they played a cancer-stricken dying wife. There was a scene in which you had to put in a coffin put. But nobody on the Set knew how my mom was actually. Also to me she has been trying to hide this until the very end. Until there are no more left.
What had happened?
it was one Morning in bed at the Bayerischer Hof and couldn’t get up. She called a couple of times at the front Desk, where a driver was waiting to bring them to the set. “In ten minutes I’m down,” she said. But they did not. You could stir no longer in pain.
they were there, particularly in Cologne where you live. How did you know?
A doctor from Munich, called me. He said: “Mr. Elstner, your mother is very bad. You must come to Munich.” I was angry, yelled at him, I begged him to make no unnecessary anxiety. I have apologized to me later. It was just that I wanted to have it in this Moment. My mother was the source of strength of my life.
What are your first memories of you?
I still remember like how she came at night to my room, after a theatre premiere. Her face appeared above me in my bed. Her black mane, the red lips, she wore a beautiful dress. You looked beautiful. I said to her: “You, mom, you smell after a night.” This smell had a bit of a Mystery for me.
when did you realize that you are the son of one of the most famous Actresses in Germany?
It may sound strange, but to this Moment there never was. She has explained to me early on: “Dominik, I am a kind of gambler, I play on the stage, so people Have joy.” I thought that was pretty cool. In Kindergarten I told everyone: “My mother is a gambler.” And jam amid views.
they Experienced sometimes envy against the son of a woman who was surrounded by men and women for their self-confidence was admired?
no, why? My mother was not a multi-millionaire. Until she was 40, she lived a rather Hand-to-mouth. The money was always in short supply. It was only when she took on the role in the crime series “The Commissioner”, ran things in a better direction.
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Asked Idyll – Elsner and Dieter Wedel with Dominik, 1981. The relationship didn’t last long
©Dominik Elstner
her mother pulled her in, alone. About her father, the film Director Dieter Wedel said once: “He is the father of Dominik, he is to be a producer.”
That was fine for me, because he has never really cared about me.
you were 16 when you met your father for the first Time.
That was in an Italian Restaurant in Munich. My mother, Bernd Eichinger and I were sitting together there. As Dieter Wedel came to the door, but he ignored us. Bernd Eichinger has put him on the toilet to talk. On said to him: look, you’ve got to make the first step! This is your son! He then came to our table. I stood awkwardly, was frozen, and I can hardly get a word out.
her mother called Dieter Wedel in her biography, “In Exuberance” only “the Other”. Even before their birth, the two parted. It looked at their mother like they were looking for your father?
she didn’t want to share this with me, meet my dad.
Dieter Wedel invited them into the cutting room so they could watch him at work.
Yes, and I know that my mother had a terrible fear that he could hurt me somehow. But I quickly realized that he is the father I need.
In January 2018, before throwing several Actresses Dieter Wedel violent sexual Assault. The former actress Jany temple accused him to have you at an audition raped. Dieter Wedel has denied the allegations.
This story has my mother and me shaken and upset. At the same time they also had great feelings of guilt to me. She said sorry that she had done to me as a father. I said to her: mom, you are my father, mother, grandma, uncle. All-in-one. You’re more than I can wish for myself.
they Were very upset about what was accused of your father?
I have compassion for these women. But I wanted then and wants today to say anything, because I can’t confirm what is supposed to happen. I only know what happened between my mother and my father. And that was already too much.
Why has said her mother never to these conflicts?
she wanted to have anything to do with him. Never lost a bad word in Public about him, because she was of the opinion that you have to deal with things in person. Only once she’s drawn in against my father in court. He had claimed in his autobiography, my mother would have me on him. You would have told him that it could not even be pregnant. My mother was very offended. Because it is a lie, and despising was. The court ruled that the passages had to be blacked out in the book.
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Hannelore Elsner was born Hannelore Elstner, 1942 in Burghausen, Germany, and grew up there, in Neuötting, and in Munich. At the age of 17 you had your first cinema. She graduated from the Munich school of acting, performed in theatre and in cinema and television films. From 1994 to 2006, she played the main role in the ARD TV-series “The Commissioner”. For her portrayal of the depressed writer Hanna Flanders in Oskar roehler’s Film “The Untouchables” won several prizes. Elsner died at 21. April 2019 at the age of 76 years, the consequences of a cancer disease.
©Dominik Elstner
Has condoled with their fathers after the death of their mother?
He left some messages on my Voicemail. I’ll decide when I’m calling him. And if he should someday need my help, I’ll be there.
Because he remains your father and you love him, no matter what he has done?
no, love has nothing to do with it. He has made extreme errors. I’m not going to change, but I can forgive him. But only for myself. If the other things you accuse him votes – but he can’t expect anybody to forgiveness.
The producer Nico Hofmann said about her mother: “In all men, and loves, her son Dominik was the center of their power.” Have you felt this way?
My mother has done everything for me. Their biggest fear was that I wouldn’t get along in life, not enough money to earn as a photographer, or to the false friends trap.
whence came this fear?
This is certainly also due to the circumstances of my birth. I came three months early to the world, and it was not clear whether I would survive. Every day my mother saw on the children’s ward with other babies die. I came through, because she has fought like a mother Lion to me. Our commitment has again increased.
Were they jealous that they have to share their mother with the Public?
no, I was fond of traveling with her. Eventually, my mother once said to me: “Oh, Dominik, now you go with your old mother in the disco!” I told her: Oh, mom, you’re dancing at the age of 70 so great! I love to be with you on the go. There’s a lot of young girls can be a bit of copying.
her mother was present at each event the center of attention. She climbed and danced on tables. With a glass of red Wine in one Hand, cigarette in the other.
But she was not a party woman that turned to waste. They stayed very much to themselves. She had a black belt in Kung-Fu and was able to go 60 to the balancing act. I must run, jump, hop, it has always said. She had an incredible lust for Life, which flourished in the company of colleagues. And you could give other people an awful lot of energy. But then the home you like is often together in himself.
Instagram-Post So emotionally Til adopted Schweiger of Hannelore Elsner
her mother Was lonely?
There were such moments. As you said: “Dominik, I always have to do everything alone. Nobody cares for me.” But you close only could hard allow. Maybe some people were afraid to approach her, because she had this reputation of unapproachable Diva. She’s been disappointed by many men, but has always believed to find someone who is with their soul mates. But you didn’t want any of this, as you always said, the old, conservative Farts interested in you. But there was someone that you loved very much, without revealing themselves to him ever. She was in love with DJ Hell, a music producer from Munich, Germany.
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Dominik Elstner was born in 1981. His father is the film Director, Dieter Wedel, his parents split up quickly. Elstner, lives in Cologne and works as a photographer. Again and again, he also photographed his mother said about his pictures once: “He has this different look on me. I am, and I’m not. It’s fun to disappear as the mother. In front of his eyes. This joy has captured my son beautifully.”
©Dominik Elstner
How did the DJ and the Diva know?
they met a few years ago at a Party in the garden of the German Ambassador in Singapore. The two danced the console the whole night together on the DJ. Later, in the Elevator, she wondered if they could come even closer, but neither of them dared. Since Helmut Geier, DJ is Bright, had a fear of the great Film Diva, Hannelore Elsner rejected. Today, I think: Why did you not married! Why are you two just pass each other flying! Before my mother died, I called Helmut. I said, if you want to see my mother yet, you have to hurry! When he came she was unfortunately already died.
there Were people who wanted to talk to her mother before her death?
When she came to the hospital, it was my mother’s very bad. You got some morphine for your pain. She was rarely conscious, but I sat most of the time to her bed. I read to her. From your book. Stories from your Childhood.
she Has perceived your presence yet?
Yes, there were clear moments. When I am 18. April had a birthday, I whispered in my mother’s ear: mom, I have a birthday today. Since you ripped the eyes and was still even there. She said: “Oh, God, oh, my God!” I calmed them down and said that I expect no gift from her. The greatest gift was that I could now be in this Moment with her.
there Is something, what has given them their mother is still on the way?
no one giving a orders. It was always just a “You could change”. I am committed to the club Karuna, the street children in Berlin helps. My mother was the patron. It is the “Hannelore Elsner school is now named in a Montessori elementary school in Berlin, according to her,”. And I plane a large, wild. There’s a night to be danced through. Your closest friends will be invited. DJ Hell is to hang up. I think this is a Solid, would have liked my mother very much.
you can See a retrospective on a career of acting icon Hannelore Elsner
