Barbara meets Hans Sigl in his typical working atmosphere. And although there is always a whole team involved with the “mountain doctor” and Ms. Schöneberger generally likes it to be in the family, the two speak here in intimate togetherness.
Barbara: Dear Hans, I think it’s very nice that we’re sitting here together. Because that’s my nature. I mean: life in the pack. When I wake up in the morning, I look forward to the others with whom I will spend the day.
Hans: I feel the same way. But don’t you feel like loneliness every now and then?
Never. There are those people who go somewhere alone on vacation to go for a lonely walk on the beach. Then it shakes me. No, for me the ideal state is reached when everyone is there and they have also brought someone with them.
Do you like being the center of attention?
No.
Because you always do.
Exactly. I love to disappear in the crowd, to merge with it. I love throwing parties here, but ideally I’m only perceived as a service provider who occasionally hands out sandwiches.
This disappearance, this dissolving: It almost has something Buddhist in it…
Rather not. I’m an only child and my parents really focused on me. It’s probably no coincidence that I married into a very large family. I’m one of many, and that’s a really great feeling. But how about you? how did you grow up
Especially in the community with women. My mother, my grandmother and my aunt were the big caregivers.
And the father?
Was hardly there. He was employed. That’s how it was back then, and at some point my parents separated. But I largely put my community together somewhere else.
Where, then?
At school. I was Head Boy, and back then, community was incredibly important to me in order to change things. It was always clear to me: You just can’t do it alone. I also moderated events at school or organized celebrations, but more because they couldn’t find anyone else to do it. Basically, I wanted the same thing as you: to be there, but not to be the focus.
I never got more than two votes in the class representative election. But that was okay, I was still involved. And that felt very good. That’s why I could never understand that even then there were people who cultivated such a loner existence.
And that can also be something really nice – if you don’t call these people loners, but individualists. But tell me …
Yes?
Isn’t it supposed to be the opposite here? Key word: all together.
Right.
So it’s also about how we get together again around the campfire after being isolated for almost two years, how we all return to normality…
With this burgeoning hope that we would all have developed more mindfulness and love for each other on a permanent basis…
Unfortunately, that really didn’t happen.
Instead, a gap opened up that I didn’t expect. I have heard opinions that I would never have expected from the respective opinion makers.
Have you broken friendships during Corona?
Yes one. And with another friend it’s on the brink, the isolation didn’t do it very well for him. How about you?
I’ve actually lost a few friends. There were people I saw again after a long time and they had developed, let’s say, a very different opinion on Covid than I did. It’s not bad at first, but when it ended with the sentence: “Find out what’s behind it,” then I knew it was over. And with people who are still waiting for long-term studies, I think: you can wait a long time.
Weird, is not it? I think the same. But in other areas we also tolerate different opinions.
Look at the cover of this issue.
Me as a conductor?
Exactly that. What does “all together” mean? It used to be clear: We sing – just as an example – “Hoch auf dem Gelbe Wagen” in C major. Today, however, we no longer know: Which song are we actually singing? I don’t even want to start with the key. I don’t think it’s that bad, as long as you know that’s the way it is and things are changing.
I think it’s bad. There used to be a compass for what is right and what is wrong. And there was a common set of facts.
Wait, there are still. There’s just a whole bunch of people who say I don’t believe the facts.
Isn’t it also the case that today people look for their supposed “facts” on the internet according to their own opinion? Everyone can craft their own truth. And many live by it.
But truth is perhaps not the most important point in this case. The concept of responsibility has suddenly become so important. In the sense of: Anyone who gets vaccinated not only takes responsibility for themselves, but also for others who are protected as a result. It seems that this sense of responsibility hasn’t arrived everywhere yet.
And this is exactly the point where it shows how little community spirit there is in our society. We have the biggest crisis since World War II, but there is a way out – and then people stand up and say: No, sorry, there is no scientific evidence for it, but I have my concerns. I’m sorry, I really think this is a moment to put your sensitivities aside and do something for the greater good.
A little spade for man…
… a big one for humanity. That’s how it looks! My thesis is that the sense of responsibility grows when you grow up in stable structures. You spent your childhood in a village in Styria.
And I loved it. I walked barefoot in shorts across the farms all day. That shaped me and I drew my values from this small community.
What are these values? And who specified it?
My grandfather, my grandmother, the neighbors … which ones, that can be broken down into a sentence from the highly esteemed Josef Hader: Don’t drop anything, then you don’t have to pick anything up. Or translated: Don’t hurt anyone, then nobody will hurt you either.
Hihi, Kant’s imperative, Styria style.
I agree. The cowbells jingled here, I learned from the neighboring farmers, and my grandfather showed me how to carve a whistle out of a hazel bush. That’s when I knew: I’m ready for the world.
My mother-in-law always says: Whoever gets along in nature has no problems in life. And that’s why you’re so great as a “mountain doctor”: Because you move in your natural habitat.
Good point. I’ve been playing a role for 15 years that kind of mirrors my old life: the mountains, the farms, the strong women…
I can even imagine that “Der Bergdoktor” is a great example of a grown community. And unusual for your job, which is actually designed to jump into new projects again and again.
My wish at the theater has always been to belong to a permanent ensemble. Being a jumper has never appealed to me. And I’ve always liked series, I also did “SOKO Kitzbühel” for a few years. That was over at some point, and then the offer came to become Doctor Martin Gruber.
And of course you agreed immediately.
Well, I’ve thought about it a bit. Take the “Black Forest Clinic”: As I once heard, the role of Doctor Brinkmann was first offered to Armin Mueller-Stahl. He refused, so it became Klausjürgen Wussow – who was previously a castle actor. You give direction to your career as an actor with a role like that, you have to be very aware of that. And then I thought: I’ll just do this for four years.
why four?
Because the series was initially designed for four seasons. It’s been almost 15 years now and I still love it.
As the main character, do you actually have a special responsibility for this, shall we say: production family?
I’m the class representative, the young people on the set like to come to me with questions and that’s great for me. But what would a class representative be without a class? Keeping this thing alive, making it good, is only possible if everyone works together. I need every single one of those involved. That welds together.
I think it’s so great to have colleagues – also because I often miss them.
Oh well. For example, you have your own magazine, certainly with lots of employees.
But I don’t have a desk in the editorial office, we do most of the work remotely. It’s different from yours, you see each other every day for over half a year. But my working model also has advantages.
Which?
I’m not very diplomatic. Sometimes things slip out of my head that make me think: It’s a good thing we won’t see each other again tomorrow…
I have one thought: community, whether at work or in other contexts, arises when you really see the other person, when you perceive him or her. And I’m noticing a fatal trend right now.
who would be there?
That very many take their need to be seen with their own facets and sensitivities as a matter of course – but are not willing to see the other person themselves. There is a very nice simile by Argentine Gestalt therapist and author Jorge Bucay.
I want to hear that!
Okay, listen, very briefly summarized: anger and sadness go for a walk together. They come to a lake, it’s a beautiful day, so they take off their coats and go for a swim. After that, the two mix up their cloaks, and since that day anger has been running through the world in the cloak of sadness.
And vice versa.
Yes. I like that so much because it reflects the state of our world. The angry ones are actually sad because they are not being seen, and the sad ones are far more angry than they would like to admit.
And why don’t we see that?
Because we don’t say: I’m sad. We also don’t say: I’m angry. Nobody wants to hear. I believe learning to accept the anger and sadness within ourselves and others will bring us much closer together.
Speaking of getting together, who wouldn’t you want to see over the holidays?
Anything not labeled family. How about you? I guess: big and wild and pretty crowded, right?
Then we’re happy to sit there… just a moment… well, about 25 people at the table.
That is much. It sounds lovely though. We don’t have that many.
What can I say: It’s my favorite.
Stephen Bartelswho took the minutes of this conversation, enjoyed the late walk through deserted Munich on the evening before this meeting.