Separation of Thea and Thomas Gottschalk: Before the fun is over

Fun. Just fun". That was Thomas Gottschalk's common explanation when asked about the secret of his long and happy marriage. One almost remembered Baron von Knigge, who in 1788 wrote about "intercourse among spouses": "A wise and good choice in establishing the most important bond in human life is, of course, the surest means, and consequently, joy and to be able to promise happiness in the relationship between spouses ". So fun.

That's a thing with other people's marriages. A wet rubbish, they're not ours - and yet we tend to put our own relationships next to them like an accurate ruler. Which is why we secretly pay attention to who has "trousers" where, how irritated or lovingly foreign couples in public deal with each other. How's it going? This is especially true for couples who are already "in public" by profession.

Thea and Thomas Gottschalk at least escaped the thunderstorm of lightning in the 1990s, on the Californian side of the world. The paparazzi stayed in their rowboats on Lake Starnberg and turned their lenses on other public marriages to provide the relevant sheets with pictures of their failure or fortune.

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The boulevard pretends that the affairs of strangers are of some concern to him. But he is not in it. This is his capital and his dilemma, which is why he knows only a few modes of interpretation.

First, the breathless speculation as to whether a relationship is approaching. Second, the aunts or uncontrollable abomination of the intrusive question, whether there "does not bulge" a tummy - such whispers the magic of the beginning and dynastic prospects. Third, long-term marriages are tapped and eyed like highway bridges, if there are not any fine cracks - in this case, spiritualists provide the comforting realization that nothing lasts forever.

Fixed constellation of reliability

When reporting on such private matters, it is only superficially a matter of whether "we" are happy or shocked. In fact, reasons are given for either envy or malice.

As soon as there is a "marriage-off" as in the Gottschalks, the usual hyenas already sniff around the couple and practice their favorite discipline, the reinterpretation - actual, alleged, supposed - sign in hindsight. Until the fastest of the pack finally show "the new woman". The classic so, all right.

Now the Gottschalks are in a way really a special case. Even those who did not look very closely could perceive them from the corner of their eyes as a fixed constellation of reliability. Look, they're together too! In fact, they were for almost half a century, four of them as spouses. Literally iridescent, nicely complementary and quite unshakeable.

A certification for marriage as an institution, as one imagines or wishes. Other people loose four marriages in 40 years, which lasted longer than many other people's lives. Thea and Thomas Gottschalk have survived even the most rapid changes in society and raised two more children. You have to imitate them first. And have fun!

Moral conservatism "straightens outta Vatican"

Who, in the light of this record, describes the relationship after 47 years as "failed", whose ideas of life and love do not go beyond the children's proposition: "in love, engaged, married". And then? Visible here is a moral conservatism "straight outta Vatican". It resonates in the alleged regret over their end also an understanding of marriage, which only masked romantically.

How, Thea and Thomas are two grown people? No, what a pity! This is also readable on the subliminal reproach that it is a late separation. Just as if the spouses had not gotten far until - yes, where did they go?

In 1788, when people do not help each other, "to make life sweet and easy", Knigge writes that life is "an existence of perpetual, austere sacrifice, a state of the heaviest slavery". There is only hope for salvation, "when the thin bony man with his scythe puts an end to the mischief".

Almost 40 percent of marriages in Germany are divorced. The rest is fun until the scrawny bone man comes with the scythe. Or not. Go to a wet rubbish.