Globetrotter Hape Kerkeling talks in GALA about his passion for traveling. Preferably as a couple, sometimes in the distance, sometimes around the corner.
During the most beautiful time of the year, everything has to be right: weather, location, entertainment program. Or everything goes wrong on an all-inclusive vacation – like in the great 1990s comedy film “Club Las Piranjas”. Hape Kerkeling. Almost 30 years later, fans now find out in a four-part “RTL+” series that entertainer Edwin has a long-grown son who now runs a luxury resort on a dream island and is currently planning his wedding. And that Edwin’s colleague Biggi, who used to be so endearingly awkward, is now a tough businesswoman in the travel industry. The best conditions for plenty of complications – and Hape right in the middle of it all, together with TV colleagues like Cordula Stratmann and Andrea Sawatzki, Benno Fürmann and Rick Kavanian. Viewers can see from the end credits that this series is a real affair of the heart for the entertainer, who has made himself rare in front of the camera for a few years: he is also listed there as a producer Dirk Kerkelinghis husband.
In the GALA interview, Hape Kerkeling explains how the two of them travel privately. Mostly cheerful, but sometimes with serious tones.
Gala: Have you ever treated yourself to a club vacation?
Hape Kerkeling: I tried it once, in Turkey in 1991. After that I was healed. The film “Club Las Piranjas” was created from everything that happened to me there.
For whom is a club holiday more strenuous – the entertainers or the guests?
Judging by the volume, it’s equally bad for everyone involved. During the filming of the series, in our hotel in Mauritius there was aqua gymnastics every morning with techno music, which was simply psychological terror. Cordula Stratmann thought for a long time that it was me who was organizing the big uprising. (laughs)
Unlike your 1995 film, the series now takes place in a real luxury resort: sea, sun, palm trees galore. That sounds like a “dream ship”, only without a ship. Did filming feel like a vacation?
You’re on the wrong steamer! At the big one Wolfgang Rademann The “Dream Ship” filming was actually still a dream trip. Today everything has to be turned faster and faster. But I think our director Sven Unterwaldt and the team really made the best of it. As for me: I always got up at 4:30 a.m., it got dark early in the evening, it rained a lot… Actually, I would have to go back to the island now.
Hape Kerkeling: This is how he spends his holidays behind the camera
Are beach vacations one of your favorite vacations?
For me, vacation means above all: seeing, experiencing, tasting, smelling new things. I’m more of an amateur researcher than a tourist. I used to be able to lie on the beach for a week. That would be far too boring for me today.
Is there an unforgettable vacation of your life?
I think every trip is worth it. Almost nothing was possible during the pandemic, so my husband and I left without further ado Rhineland went on vacation to the Bergisches Land. And guess what? It was great! We’ll do that again! Good food, beautiful landscapes, the natives are super nice, and everyone speaks some German.
Do you generally prefer the snow or the hot sun in winter?
It’s different for me every time. I don’t freeze in rituals.
They live for long periods in typical places of longing, in Italy and South Africa. Conversely, will Germany become a place of longing?
It’s true, I’ve been able to see a lot of the world. However, I’m never away for so long that I can forget what brown bread with liver sausage tastes like.
Specifically: Where is Germany the most beautiful?
In Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Warnemünde. The Harz and the Black Forest are also great. You learn that from a distance. By the way: Unfortunately, Italy is no longer a place of longing for me. That’s because of politics. With its fascist government, the country has lost its lightness.
This is how the Kerkelings live
After a few years in Berlin, Cologne is now your German home base. You recently said that you and your husband feel much more comfortable there than in the capital. What do you mean?
I’ll put it this way: what’s learned is what’s learned. Rhineland is what I do best, this light and fluffy thing. That’s just how I like it and how I like it.
Have you both experienced that in some areas two men cannot stroll through the city hand in hand undisturbed?
This probably affects most areas on our planet.
If there is a spontaneous kiss, completely normal – that’s not possible for a male couple?
In Qatar and Saudi Arabia this can even be life-threatening. As a member of a minority you learn to survive.
Let’s talk about appearances: As a private “hobby researcher”, are you as stylish as you are in your Vox series “Hape and the 7 Dwarf States”, with a jacket and pocket square?
Certainly not! If I had to think so much about my outfit, where would the relaxation be? On vacation I find it just as impossible to walk around as Angela Merkel.
More and more people are looking for travel destinations that are “instagrammable”. What do you think of it?
The world is getting more and more crazy, and this is confirmation. But if people make a living from it – fine.
Do you ever take photos yourself?
I photograph the way my grandparents did: rare, precious 29 moments. However not – sorry! – every shit.
And do you stick the photos in the album?
No, I love the Apple library because the pictures don’t stick together and turn yellow. Not all progress is bad.