Ruth Maria Kubitschek
That’s what she says in her last interview about “Spatzl”
Ruth Maria Kubitschek retired as an actress ten years ago – here she was a guest of Markus Lanz in 2013.
© IMAGO / STAR MEDIA
Ruth Maria Kubitschek is retiring. In a final interview she looks back on her career and her “Monaco Franze” success.
Ten years ago she retired from acting with her last film role in “Frau Ella” alongside Matthias Schweighöfer (42). In a recent interview with “Stern” magazine, Ruth Maria Kubitschek (92) says that this was “a good end” to her career. “Playing more ancient women wasn’t interesting. I had written the best roles myself anyway,” said the celebrated German actress.
She is primarily referring to her memorable role as “Spatzl” in Helmut Dietl’s (1944-2015) cult series “Monaco Franze” (1983) alongside Helmut Fischer (1926-1997) as “the eternal Stenz”: “The figure is largely identical to me.” Annette von Soettingen alias “Spatzl” is initially “an empty one role”.
But her own stories ultimately filled the character with life, says Ruth Maria Kubitschek. “Helmut Dietl and the author Patrick Süskind (74) always invited me to the Munich celebrity restaurant ‘Rossini’. They knew that I couldn’t tolerate alcohol and deliberately gave me more,” she reports in the interview. “When I was drunk, I talked about everything about my life.” As a result, the “Spatzl” took shape.
Ruth Maria Kubitschek: “The Spatzl freed me”
“The two of them saw my apartment, the elegant English and Chinese furniture in it, and so it became an antique dealer. Added to that was my escape story, which they incorporated,” recalls the now 92-year-old. “And because I was friends with a gay couple that I visited once a year in Bermuda, the story about the rich emigrants came into the series.”
Despite the similarities, there were also significant differences between her and her role. “She let her Franze get away with everything,” explains Ruth Maria Kubitschek, “I never did any of that, it would have been impossible for me. I always left, left my men.” Nevertheless, she learned a lot from her famous role: “The Spatzl freed me.”
That was her last interview
She now frees herself from the pressure of continuing to be in the public eye. In an interview with “Stern” she made it clear at the end that this was the “last interview” she wanted to give. “I think everything has been said now,” said Kubitschek.
Ruth Maria Kubitschek has been living in Ascona on Lake Maggiore since spring 2022. She was born in 1931 in what was then Czechoslovakia and fled to Saxony-Anhalt with her parents. She later left the GDR with her son Alexander and her then husband, the opera director Götz Friedrich. From 1976 she was in a relationship with “Traumschiff” producer Wolfgang Rademann (1934-2016) for 40 years until his death.