Frank Elstner spoke to Markus Lanz about his Parkinson's disease. The moderator veteran is optimistic.
Frank Elstner (78) does not let himself get down. The presenter legend spoke openly about her Parkinson's disease on Thursday evening on Markus Lanz's (51) talk show. "Well, I'm actually quite fine. There are so many difficult things in the world that don't work. You see your own things on a somewhat smaller scale." Elstner had made his illness public in 2019.
"Parkinson's is an interesting disease," says the 78-year-old. Unfortunately it is "still not curable and since I am a journalist and ask a lot of questions and am curious, I asked all sorts of professors to get a level of knowledge, so to speak, where I not only think about how I am doing, but how are Parkinson's sufferers at all. " In Germany there are 300,000 people who have received the diagnosis that they are terminally ill.
Elstner is combative
"And I do not want to put up with my character, that I am terminally ill," the moderator shows his fighting spirit. Instead, he thinks about how to motivate people to support research. Elstner, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Parkinson Foundation, goes "as a beggar through the country and say: 'People, support basic research. Then maybe we will get on.'"
Although the moderator has to nibble on the disease, "but that doesn't mean I have to nibble in public. In public, I try to gain sympathy for the fact that there are researchers who would like to continue research." The foundation works tirelessly to get one step further. "I am very confident because I have seen what research can bring about. (…) I know what basic research can achieve."
At the same time, the moderator is "an incorrigible optimist. When I get up in the morning, I don't get up and say, 'Oops, you're going to be shaking again.' Instead, I get up and say: 'I hope we can get some more money for research today.' "
Elstner describes himself as a "restless guy". There is "a very simple rule" in dealing with his illness: he distracts himself. Together with the psychologist Thorsten Kienast, Elstner recently published the book "More power for the head: How to find inner peace, solve problems and worry less".