Fathers shape our lives – but what remains of them? Twice a month we survey celebrities about their relationship with their father. This time: the media pioneer Roger Schawinski.
Roger Schawinski with his father Abraham.
1. Describe three characteristics of your father.
My father was the happiest, most generous and humble person imaginable. To this day, complete strangers who have met him confirm this again and again – without being asked.
2. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree: What are typical characteristics that characterize you as your father’s son?
His unswerving optimism, which he was able to maintain for so long.
3. Complete the following sentence: Unlike my mother, my father was . . .
. . . an Luftibus, which was always short of cash, but when the weather was nice, instead of working, he often sat down on a bench by the lake to be able to enjoy this unique day.
The journalist Roger Schawinski.
4. What did your father teach you about life?
You always have to side with the weaker.
5. . . . about love?
He didn’t talk about love. He lived them. He and my mother were lovers to the end. The day before my mother died, they danced together briefly in the hospital as if life would never end. I will never forget this picture. The unconditional love that I experienced from my parents gave me the strength that carried me through life and without which everything I have achieved would not have been possible.
6. . . . about money?
My father had money problems all his life because other things were more important to him. He despised greed and wealth. When the “Bilanz” published their list of the rich for the first time, he was horrified and told me that he would be ashamed if my name ever appeared there. When he visited us for the first time in our new, large house on the Zürichberg shortly before his death, he asked me seriously: “Roger, are you an imposter?” After growing up in extreme poverty with four siblings, he simply could not imagine that his son had made it this far.
About Roger Schawinski and his father:
Roger Schawinski is a Swiss radio and television pioneer. He was born in Zurich in 1945 and grew up in Zurich Wiedikon. After graduating from high school, he studied economics at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) and received his doctorate in economics. In 2016, the University of Freiburg awarded him an honorary doctorate.
He began his journalistic career in the “Rundschau” of Swiss television. There he founded and moderated the consumer magazine “Kassensturz” in 1974. In 1979 he started Radio 24, Switzerland’s first private radio station, which initially had to broadcast from Italy. In 1994, Schawinski founded Tele Züri, the first private local television station in Switzerland, and in 1998 Tele 24, the first nationwide private television station. From 2003 to 2006 he was the managing director of the German TV station SAT 1 in Berlin. In 2008, Roger Schawinski launched the “adults only” station with Radio 1. Between 2011 and 2020 he moderated the talk show “Schawinski” on SRF. He is currently continuing the show on Blue Zoom. He was also a columnist and the author of twelve non-fiction books.
Schawinski is married for the third time and has three children.
being father, Abraham “Abri” Schawinski (1916–1998) grew up in Chur as the son of Polish immigrants and was a trained tailor. He later worked as a bedding salesman.
7. Tell about your most formative experience with your father.
When I opened my savings book in second grade, into which I had reliably deposited everything I had received from my uncles for my birthdays, I received a shock. There were only 10 francs left, 178 francs were gone. Agitated, I ran to my father and told him that someone had stolen from me. Then he confessed to me that he had withdrawn the money because he couldn’t pay the monthly rent. He didn’t dare to confess this to me because he was ashamed. I felt his pain and he felt mine. This event brought us even closer together. He transferred the 178 francs back to me soon afterwards.
8. What did you want to do differently than your father?
My father was small, only about 1.55 meters. And he made himself even smaller so as not to attract attention as a poor Jewish immigrant child. He was born and grew up in Chur, where his Polish parents tried to start a new life shortly before the First World War. Right from the start, his goal was to become a doctor because he wanted to help people.
Of course, the means for studying were not available. Therefore he had to earn money as early as possible. He began an apprenticeship as a tailor and later turned to psychology. He probably hoped that I would aspire to be a doctor as his son, but I had other interests. Now my older daughter Joelle has become a doctor, and so my father’s dream is being fulfilled in the third generation.
Yes, and I never made myself small. On the contrary! Maybe I’m trying to reclaim some of my great father’s dignity by not fawning in front of anyone. He took note of this public appearance with astonishment, some concern, but also with increasing pride.
9. What has always annoyed you about your father, but now do the same thing?
I really can’t think of anything. He never annoyed me. He was always a role model for me, who was far less successful than I was, but who was vastly superior to me in more important, especially human, areas of life.
10. A phrase your father often said?
When I was expelled from high school during my probationary period because I watched the 1958 World Cup games on TV every evening, he didn’t give me the feeling that I had disappointed him. Instead, he kept saying, shrugging his shoulders: “Roger is just not ready for high school.”
And he was right about that. When I was finally mature, I graduated from high school with top grades and later even got my doctorate. Probably because my father never put any pressure on me, I was able to go my way free of all expectations.
11. What did you always want to say to your father?
You are the best, you and mother. My younger sister Jacqueline and I still think of you with great gratitude, many years after your death. We feel privileged to have had parents like that. We miss you.