“Do you actually know”, Chris Reinhard asked me in his warm bass-baritone voice and pointed to the piano, “that I practiced it day and night when I was preparing for my acting exam?
We drama students knew that Gustaf Gründgens attaches great importance to mastering instruments. ”-“ You passed your drama exam with Gründgens? ”-“ 1949 in Düsseldorf.
But that was before my music career. "
I now listened even more attentively, while the dignified, but grief-stricken mid-seventies turned into an accomplished entertainer. He reported on the performances with the actress Elisabeth Flickenschild. Or the story of how he organized the cast of the Lippstadt Municipal Theater to demand appearances and thus fees. The incident made it clear how barren an artist's life could be after the war - when hunger and cold were still present.