Karlheinz Böhm
Karlheinz Böhm ( born March 16, 1928 in Darmstadt, Germany) is an Austrian actor and founder of the Foundation People for People ( in Germany and Switzerland ) and the same association in Austria. His organization helps with the motto " help themselves", and people in need in Ethiopia.
Böhm starred in 45 films and was known as an actor primarily for his role as Emperor Franz Joseph in the Sissi trilogy on the side of Romy Schneider.
Life
Karlheinz Böhm, only child of the soprano Thea Linhard and conductor Karl Böhm, is an Austrian citizen. He also received in 2003 the Ethiopian honorary citizenship, but feels like a citizen of the world: His father was born in Graz, his mother from Munich. He lives in Grödig near Salzburg. He spent his youth in Darmstadt, Hamburg and Dresden. In Hamburg he visited the elementary school and the Kepler -Gymnasium. A fake doctor's note helped him in 1939 to leave the country to Switzerland, where he attended a boarding school, the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz.
In 1946 he moved with his parents to Graz, where he made the same year the Matura. He wanted to be a pianist originally. While auditioning it said, according to his biography: " for the Son of Böhm it's a bit poor ." He studied at the insistence of his father, English and German, then in Rome for a semester art history. Böhm here interrupted his studies to take acting classes with Helmut Krauss in Vienna.
From 1948 to 1976 he worked as a successful actor and starred in about 45 films and in the theater. He played alongside Romy Schneider in the three Sissi films the young Emperor Franz Joseph. Thus it has been established as an actor on a genre - which he tried to escape in the sequence. His international career as an actor in 1960, interrupted by his portrayal of a serial killer in Michael Powell's Peeping Tom, as critics and audiences the film then rejected because of his oppressive content. It was not until the early 1980s, the film was re-evaluated; He is now among cinephiles as one of the best of this genre.
Boehm had previously signed a contract with the Hollywood MGM, but even this cooperation proved for his film career as not very fertile. The roles that they gave him were there for him not satisfactory and the five films mainly have had little success. And so he returned mid-1960s disappointed back to Europe. Remarkably, however, was the collaboration with director Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the 1970s. Here he excelled in the psychological thriller Martha, who took a critical look at the institution of marriage. Influenced by the socio- critical impetus of the director began Böhm, is increasingly interested in global issues.
After his first marriage (1954-1957) to Elizabeth Zonewa, which produced a daughter, he was married to Gudula blue. From this relationship, the actress Kristina Boehm and two other children come. A daughter from his third marriage to Barbara passage is the actress Katharina Böhm. Since 1991 he is with the of Ethiopia agricultural expert Almaz Böhm (born 1964 ) married, which is executive chairman and since November 12, 2011 Chairman of the Foundation People for People since 2008. The two have two children together. Böhm's eldest grandson Florian Böhm is an actor and director.
In 2008, the European School Salzburg Nonntal received on the occasion of the 80th birthday of the Böhm suffix " Karlheinz Böhm -Gymnasium ". In June 2011, Bohm's work was also recognized with the " Karlsplatz " and a sculpture in the diplomatic district of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. At the opening of Federal President Horst Köhler ret. was present, who called Böhm a "silent revolution" activities.
He belongs to a Munich Masonic lodge.
On February 19, 2013 it was announced that Boehm has Alzheimer's.
Aid for Africa
1976 Boehm was first confronted with the poverty in Africa. In order to cure a bronchitis, doctors advised him to stay in Kenya. There it was demonstrated by a local hotel employees the downside of luxury facade. Karlheinz Böhm saw the tabernacle of the hotel staff learned that the locals could afford only the head of a fish, and was shocked. He could not come to terms with the poverty and decided to help in Africa.
When he returned to Germany, he was "Wetten, dass. " In the show invited. There, he bet on May 16, 1981, less than one in three viewers would donate a Mark or seven shillings or one franc for needy people in the Sahel. He promised that he would even go to Africa to help, if he lose the bet. The fundraising goal was not achieved and Böhm won the bet; after all, but about 1.2 million DM came together. After the program, he flew in October 1981 with the money for the first time to Ethiopia and founded on 13 November 1981, the organization People for People.
One of the causes of poverty in Ethiopia looks Karlheinz Böhm in the social disadvantage of women. He says that we must finally realize that women have the same rights as men. Many years spent Karlheinz Böhm several months a year in Ethiopia and visited each of the projects.
Boehm is also the initiator of the first partnership at the local level between a German and an Ethiopian community. This was in 1994 entered into between father Stetten, the former residence Böhm, and Alem Katema.