The duo that represented Germany in Eurovision is gone.
Ellen and Alice Kessler photographed on New Year’s Eve in Munich in 2024. PDO
Entertainment legends Alice and Ellen Kessler have died, reports the German Bild magazine. The twin sisters died at the age of 89 at their home in Munich on November 17.
According to the newspaper, the singers died of assisted suicide. The matter was confirmed by the spokesperson of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Humanes Sterben, the Berlin-based association for assisted dying.
According to the German constitution, every person has the freedom to decide his own life and to use the help provided by third parties.
The famous twins committed suicide in the presence of a doctor and a lawyer. After this, the police were called to the scene and checked the situation and circumstances.
The spokesperson for the association said that the sisters had already made the decision a long time ago and that they did not suffer from mental health problems.
Alice and Ellen talked about the death in an interview with Corriere della Sera last year. The sisters wanted to die on the same day because the thought of one dying before the other would be hard to bear.
The Kessler twins were born in Nerchau, Germany in 1936. The dancing skills of the young girls charmed the children’s ballet program of the Leipzig Opera at the age of 11. After the family defected from East Germany to West Germany, the twins continued their careers in the entertainment world. The big step happened in 1959, when Alice and Ellen represented West Germany in Eurovision with the song Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh’n.
Ellen and Alice Kessler’s career started already in childhood. In the picture, the sisters performed in Paris at the end of the 1950s. PDO
In 1959, the sisters met a well-known choreographer Don Luriowho decided to bring the Germans to perform in Italy. The duo’s appearance was praised to such an extent that they even posed on the cover of the Italian Playboy magazine. The press called them “the legs of the nation”.
However, their bare legs in the performances aroused disapproval. The sisters had to wear thick black tights in the programs of the Italian Public Radio.
– We were scantily clad on TV, but we thought we were always elegant, never vulgar. Criticism came, but it was an advantage for us, the sisters recalled in an interview with an Italian magazine.
Ellen and Alice Kessler appeared in several musical films such as La Paloma. PDO
In addition to singing and dancing, the Kesslers acted in several films.
Neither of the sisters married during their lifetime. The twins’ decision was influenced by their mother’s unhappy marriage, which was overshadowed by intimate partner violence.
The twins have previously told the Bild magazine that they want to be buried in the same urn. The final resting place is their deceased Elsa-next to mom and the Yello dog.
Sources: The Guardian & People
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