The last episode of “Monaco Franze – The Eternal Stenz” aired on May 11, 1983. Ruth Maria Kubitschek played “Spatzl” back then, a role for which she is grateful today.
Ruth Maria Kubitschek has shaped German television for many years. She was on board the ZDF “Dream Ship”, played in the ARD “Tatort” or in the series “The Legacy of the Guldenburgs” in the Second.
The actress achieved cult status alongside Helmut Fischer as Annette von Soettingen alias “Spatzl” in “Monaco Franze – The Eternal Stenz”. The series came to television on March 2, 1983. At that time, Ruth Maria Kubitschek was in her early 50s and had long been no stranger. After ten episodes it ended in May.
“I think everything has been said now!”
Ruth Maria Kubitschek has now withdrawn from the public eye. She no longer makes films and is no longer available for interviews. The actress made this clear two years ago on the occasion of her 90th birthday.
Two years later, Ruth Maria Kubitschek appeared in the press again. She spoke to “Stern” in December about her life, her childhood and her career. In the conversation she also made it clear: This will be her last interview. “I think everything has been said now!” Ruth Maria Kubitschek has obviously had enough of the spotlight, enough of reporter questions and probably also enough of being in the public interest.
After 60 years in the spotlight, she retired
The actress was born in 1931 in Komotau (now the Czech Republic) on the edge of the Ore Mountains. Towards the end of the Second World War, the family fled to Saxony-Anhalt. She pushed through her urge to be on stage against her parents’ wishes. After attending drama schools in Halle and Weimar, she made her debut as Fina in Brecht’s “Herr Puntila and his servant Matti” in Halle. Within a few years she became a star of GDR television and DEFA films.
But the young woman wanted more. In 1959 she went to the West with her son. Her husband, the opera and theater director Götz Friedrich, stayed in the GDR, but was also allowed to stage productions in the West. A second important person at Kubitschek’s side later became the “Dream Ship” inventor Wolfgang Rademann.
Kubitschek’s West German career began at the Schlosstheater in Celle. She was supported by the great Austrian theater man Fritz Kortner. Roles in German television productions soon followed – appearances in “Lysistrata” (1961), “Die Powenzbande” (1973) and the title role in “Melissa” (1966).
“The ‘Spatzl’ freed me”
However, her role as “Spatzl” in the ARD cult series “Monaco Franze – Der eternal Stenz” directed by Helmut Dietl remains unforgettable. The way she generously forgave her busy TV husband Franz Münchinger (played by Helmut Fischer) for every escapade is one of the most amusing chapters in German TV history.
More than 40 years after the first episode, she told “Stern” that she had benefited from her role for her own life. “The ‘Spatzl’ freed me,” said the 92-year-old. “I couldn’t forgive so well. A lot of things would have been easier if I had been like this ‘Spatzl’ because then I would have stayed with my men instead of drawing harsh conclusions.”
As Kubitschek further explained in the interview, she herself provided the inspiration for the role. “The character is largely identical to me.” Helmut Dietl and the author Patrick Süskind invited her to dinner in Munich and asked her about her life. “The character initially lacked any flesh, it was an empty role. I was drunk and told everything about my life, and so this Annette von Soettingen, as she was called, took shape,” she remembered.
2024-05-11 06:22:00
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