Sissy Engl My whole life, everything has always happened by accident. E-Book

Heinz Michael Vilsmeier (EN)

• Herausgeber: epubli
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 151

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

The interview with Sissy Engl, a recognized and successful singer, actress, and choreographer, took place on July 6, 2012, in Munich. Sissy Engl is a co-founder of the "Mandolin Motions Einstein Show Academy," which she started in 1980 with Peter Mühlen. She is known for her artistic versatility. Particularly influential were her roles in theater plays by Fernando Arrabal and Jean-Paul Sartre, as well as her provocative performances in films during the sexual liberation of the 1970s. In the interview, Sissy Engl also discusses her collaborations with Munich cultural figures such as Katja Ebstein and Konstantin Wecker and provides insights into her often challenging personal experiences with colleagues in the cultural industry of the old Federal Republic. A recurring topic is her life with Peter Mühlen, who had attempted suicide the night before an interview she had arranged. The interview with Peter Mühlen, which took place under unusual and difficult circumstances, was one of his last public appearances before his death on September 15, 2012.

Leseprobe

Heinz Michael Vilsmeier

in conversation with

Sissy Engl

My whole life, everything has always happened by accident.

E-Book

Imprint:

HAMCHA art integration

Heinz Michael Vilsmeier

Spiegelbrunn 11

D-84130 Dingolfing

© Copyright by Heinz Michael Vilsmeier, 2012

First German-language edition:

© Copyright by Heinz Michael Vilsmeier, 2020

Fotos: © Copyright by Heinz Michael Vilsmeier,2020

Peter Mühlen Collection, with kind permission

Print: epubli - a service of neopubli GmbH, Berlin

https://interview-online.blog

[email protected]

Foreword

The following interview with the singer, actress, and choreographer Sissy Engl took place on July 6, 2012, in the then premises of the "Fachakademie für künstlerischen Tanz, Gesang und Musical" on Einsteinstraße in Munich. The "Mandolin Motions Einstein Show Academy" was founded by Sissy Engl and Peter Mühlen in 1980 in the Munich suburb of Haar and later moved to Einsteinstraße 123, a heritage building in the Haidhausen district with a Neo-Baroque facade. The address is noteworthy because it contributed to the naming of the Show Academy. Although Mandolin Motions Show Academy moved to Grillparzer Straße 3 after Peter Mühlen's death, "Einstein" is still included in the name.

Sissy Engl looks back on an extremely rich, colorful life full of highs and lows, about which she provides deep insights in the following. As a singer, actress, and choreographer, she appeared in Holiday on Ice, on stage, in film, and on television. Alongside Peter Mühlen, who, like her, was a major figure in Munich's cultural scene, particularly at Bayerischer Rundfunk, Sissy Engl influenced Munich's cultural industry for many decades. She is particularly remembered for her performances in plays by Fernando Arrabal or Jean Paul Sartre, for example as the "respectable whore" in the play of the same name by Sartre. With her role as Monika in the play "Magic Afternoon" by the Austrian Wolfgang Bauer, with which Bauer achieved international breakthrough as a playwright in 1968, Sissy Engl provoked the theater audience. But the provocations did not end there – Sissy Engl did something that many did in the wake of the "sexual liberation": she acted in films like "Graf Porno und die lebenslustigen Töchter" (1969), "Dr. Fummel und seine Gespielinnen" (1970), and "Hurra die deutsche Sexpartei" (1974).

Many stars of the Munich cultural scene, such as Katja Ebstein or Konstantin Wecker, belong to Sissy Engl's colleagues and peers from her years in the Munich cultural industry, and they left personal impressions and experiences with her – not always the best ones, by the way! Sissy tells about these experiences in the following interview. At the end of the conversation, we returned to her husband and long-time partner Peter Mühlen, who was already suffering from a terminal illness at the time. Nevertheless, Sissy Engl agreed to arrange an interview appointment with Peter Mühlen at their shared home in Munich Haar. It took place on August 1, 2012, under unpredictable circumstances – Peter Mühlen had attempted suicide the night before the appointment. To let the interview proceed, he instructed Sissy Engl to answer my questions. Later, to my surprise, he joined the conversation. This interview was published in a separate interview volume and was the last public appearance of Peter Mühlen. I never saw Peter Mühlen again; he died on September 15, 2012.

Abbildung 1 Sissy Engl in der Mandolin Motions Einstein-Show-Academy

I forced everything upon myself.

HMV: Sissy Engl, shall we use informal or formal speech?

Sissy Engl: I don't know! – As wished…

HMV: For the interview, I think it's nicer if we keep it formal. – Shall we use "Sie"?

Sissy Engl: Yes.

HMV: How did you get into acting?

Sissy Engl: It's actually hard to say. I don't really know myself. It's actually all by chance. So I don't know if it's something innate or not, I don't know. But as a child, of course... - my mother was an actress. She went missing, that was during the war time. And I always idolized her; she was beautiful! I adored her, I had her photos – and maybe there was a bit of a thought to become an actress, even though I didn't really focus on that as a small child. But I was always tumbling around through all chairs, I was extremely agile, always had crazy ideas. Then as a small child, I always sang servant songs...: 'Climb up the high mountains, there she looked down and there she saw him and he came driving… - What do I know! – Because he can no longer...' Those were the kinds of songs I sang. And there was a song called: "A child at seven years, who was already an orphan. And as it was old enough to ask about her mother: Oh father, dearest mine, where is my mother? – Your mother sleeps deeply, no waking her up." – I think I didn't do it consciously, but I believe I identified with it subconsciously. And this piece, for instance, I played it with the children. I was the child and we really made a theater out of it. And at the end, we sang it beautifully. We charged 5 Pfennig for admission and people came. And the other thing was that I lived in Arzbach after the war for a few years, near Bad Tölz, which I think was very good for me, because my childhood was a very hard one. – But they were farmer’s children, I was very well dressed, I wanted to run in aprons, I wanted to run barefoot, I wanted to herd cows, I wanted to do everything that the farmer kids did! And I was actually not allowed to, and I always got beaten…

HMV: … Who raised you so strictly?

Sissy Engl: My grandmother. She loved me a hundred percent. My grandfather was an artist, he was often away painting, etc., and my grandmother was raised very strictly herself. She came from a corresponding house where one still spoke in the third person and where the decorum watchdog followed. – She wanted to make something of me. And she wanted to nurture my talents. She loved me very much, but she was very impulsive. She was overintelligent and took me to school… somehow… She beat everything into me because I wanted to do everything except study. I always just wanted to play, explore caves, and do the craziest things! – I had many toys, especially around Christmas time. Then kids were always invited over, each child was allowed to play with me for two days, then the next one came, and then the Doll Fairy collected everything again, so I wouldn't get too spoiled. And I had to be home by four in the afternoon, at the latest, or I had to come straight home from school. And we slid down the Schachen, which was a hill, and my grandmother came up with the cooking spoon… Back then, there still was the cooking spoon. – And the naughty farmer kids, they had no upbringing at all. If I got beaten, they stood in front of the window and laughed! – And afterwards, we played it. We played how I got beaten and why. And then I took my many toys; it was the only way to cope with these naughty farmer kids, with these toys… So I had to bring them. I said, 'If I bring them, then I get beaten!' Then they said, 'And if you don't bring them, then you get beaten up by us! – Now you can choose where you want the beatings to come from!'

HMV: Great alternatives!

Sissy Engl: And then came the thought: 'Or, you play us 'Scarlett von Schmarotzer'!' – If you perform that, then you can take your toys back home.' – Why Scarlett? I think I caught the name Scarlett as a child from 'Gone with the Wind.' I can only have gotten it from there. – The 'von Schmarotzer' – I don't know, it's a crazy idea… And the 'von'? – We indeed had some nobles in our family, so there was a bit of "von Schmarotzer". – 'Schmarotzer' – I didn't think about parasitizing. It just came to me spontaneously. What I played there, I can't say today. I only know: I played something. – I stood up, sang, played, danced, and the children were totally thrilled. And when I was done, I was allowed to take my toys and go home again. – I believe that was my first thought about becoming an actress, just like my mother… – or a painter!

HMV: When did play become serious?

Sissy Engl: The acting came very, very late. I actually started with dance. I came to dance by chance. I did all sports as a small child, skiing, ice skating, water rescue, and all sorts of things. I received many honor certificates. The only thing that saved me in school were the many certificates. I was supposedly very musical… I could sing from sheet music right away and so on… and paint. I always went painting with my grandfather. Those are the three things I could do, and those were the three things I loved. – And then once, I was always sent to some aunt during the holidays, the uncle was the headmaster of two schools… There I was also raised very strictly, but they tried to make everything possible for me. I was alone! They brought some cousins so I wouldn't be alone. And there, I did backflip over beds with my cousins – they were boys! They went along with everything, I always directed what I did there!

HMV: How old were you then?

Sissy Engl: Eleven. - And then one day my aunt came and said... There was a girl who had black hair, black curls and blue eyes - my mother had black eyes, but I thought she was as beautiful as my mother. For me, there were only long black hair. I adored this girl because she reminded me of my mother, who was still missing. Then I was allowed to go to the sports club with this girl to do ballet. I asked my aunt, "What is ballet?" Then she said, "Something very beautiful, but very difficult!" - That was the answer. Then I knew as much as before. Then I went to the sports club. There was Rudi Benz, they actually called him 'Benzke', but he called himself Rudi Benz, a Russian, Russian ballet master or dancer. There was proper ballet training in the gymnastics club. He put me at the bar... Well, I was allowed to go back the next day, and go back again, and he said I was very talented. Then after I had been there for six weeks, he took an aptitude test, and I got a little booklet, which I still have today, the ballet book... He then wrote in it. - Strangely enough, when I came back to Bad Tölz, we were already living in Bad Tölz, I didn’t tell. But! - From that moment on... My aunt gave me lots of silk scraps... and tulle! Then I, I can't sew, and I don't want to sew, and I hate sewing, but I sewed skirts and little panties for my friends and for me. And then I always sang 'Voices of Spring Waltz' [laughs] and danced to it. - I was totally obsessed! Obsessed actually with this idea of ballet. Then I went into some kind of gymnastics, there was a kind of gymnastics, something between gymnastics and metamorphosis, which I had not heard much about, but which was dance-oriented. They then put me in there because I was very talented in gymnastics and movement. That was already a bit of it, but had nothing to do with me... - Then at some point my mother came back…

HMV: Where had your mother been all this time?

Sissy Engl: She was in Vienna. Vienna was divided into four zones by the war. She was in the Russian zone, she was on a theater tour, had left me with some people, said she 'would be back in three days...' - and never came back. I then refused to eat or drink. I was four years old. Until then my grandmother, my great-aunt, and my uncle picked me up…

HMV: … did they pick you up from Vienna?

Sissy Engl: No, no, no, it wasn't Vienna, it was in Munich. – She went on a tour, to where, I still don’t know today! ... Maybe to Vienna. - I don’t know. She had left me in Munich, with friends of hers. And my great-grandmother was a writer, actually quite well-known, Elise Miller, she had a villa in Pullach. And there was also my great-aunt. And my uncle, with whom I was always in Württemberg, through whom I also got to learn ballet…

HMV: … the school director…

Sissy Engl: … Yes exactly! He was just visiting. And they then took me to Pullach. Then I was allowed to go down to the basement every evening with my aunt and cry about my mother because: I always cried for my mother. Because my grandmother was so strict and I got so many beatings and so many punishments and wasn’t allowed to do this and wasn’t allowed to do that which others were allowed, I always believed: ‘If my mother were here now, then it wouldn’t be like this…’ That was of course nonsense, but I believed it. Children are like that. I already pitied myself a bit as a child. I had no mother, the others did. I had a strict grandmother, she had her cooking spoon. I wasn’t allowed to do this, I wasn’t allowed to do that, I had to do this, I had to do that. I used tricks… tricks…

HMV: Would you say - now I’m using the informal you, let’s stay with that... - you said your childhood was tough. - Would you say it was painful?

Sissy Engl: Yes. - I prayed almost every evening that my mother would come back. I idolized my mother. Not just admired, idolized! My father was in the war... He would occasionally come and bring me beautiful gifts. He was always kind; he always took care of me. But later he got married, because my mother was missing. And he also wanted to take me in...

HMV: ... were they married?

Sissy Engl: No. - That was another issue. Back then, having a child out of wedlock was a catastrophe. Even with my grandparents. That was also a point. I mean, my father would have definitely married my mother. He comes from an old family of officers, served even under the Kaiser. He was far too conservative to have a child out of wedlock...

HMV: Did your grandparents condemn your mother for having a child out of wedlock?

Sissy Engl: Yes.

HMV: So, it wasn't easy for her to just come to Pullach or Bad Tölz to visit you.

Sissy Engl: Well. No, she could have done that. Although they condemned her, but... family is family! And they did say: ‘You take care of your child!’ They would have... That wasn’t the issue! The issue was her career as an actress! She was gifted, they say... Ernst Fritz Fürbringer said... What do I know, the praise she received. It was generally said that she was so overly talented. But she probably did nothing with her talent, I don’t know. I was probably also in the way. – That might be true and maybe that was part of the reason. Her father was her first love. I only know the story that my grandfather had many studio parties. He was a very famous painter, Karl Max Lechner. And then an officer came, who said: ‘Excuse me, may I have this dance with your daughter... may I request to dance this dance with your daughter?’ That’s how my mother met my father. Actually at some studio party. And that was her first and great love. And then I was born and...

HMV: ... Why did nothing come of this great love?

Sissy Engl: Because he was in the war. He went back to the war and was gone! - And because she was very disappointed. I think she couldn’t cope with the fact that she was having a child, especially an illegitimate child, and that perhaps her career was destroyed. - I don’t know! I really don’t know all that. I was never told. But I believe that those are all facts. She was also too young, at 18 years!

HMV: Was there ever a moment in your life when you were able to have a heart-to-heart with your mother?

Sissy Engl: Yes... - yes and no! That's hard to answer. When my mother came back, she looked very different. With blonde dyed hair, it was only temporary, but still. Short curls instead of those beautiful, long, black curls.

HMV: How old were you when she came back?