For more than 60 years he has played legendary roles in films such as “The Million Game” by director Tom Toelle (1970) or the TV anarcho comedy “Der Jumping Teufel” (1974), from the 1980s he was known as “Didi”. in comedies to one of the most successful German cinema actors: theater operator and old-school comedian Dieter Hallervorden, who will be 87 at the beginning of September.
He is magically attracted to social debates, most recently when it comes to gender. And so it’s no wonder that “Didi” is now also involved in the lively “Winnetou debate”. The question is whether author Karl May engaged in a form of cultural appropriation when he dreamed up stories about Native Americans from Saxony.
“I think we live in a kind of sensitivity cult, where other people want to dictate to us which slalom we have to circumnavigate alleged faux pas in the future,” Hallervorden said in a recent statement. “I take it as patronizing.”
As an experienced theater man, he consciously introduces a traditionally German theme of high culture. It refers to the grand master Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and his central work “Faust”, created between 1772 and 1775.
“Because the way Faust approaches Gretchen is not only out of date, but downright misogynistic,” says Hallervorden, who then also makes a sarcastic detour to the characters of Walt Disney: “Talking ducks – that’s what you do a certain animal species not bitterly wrong?” he presses the irony button.
He can only recommend everyone to take a deep breath – and not to take excitement like this too seriously. His credo: “Have fun about it!!”.