“Fritz Wepper in the hospice” was the headline in the “Bild” newspaper at the beginning of March. The TV star has reached the end of his journey, but he has not yet finally left the stage of life. On Monday it became known: The popular actor is dead. First, “Bild” reported about it, citing Wepper’s wife. The 82-year-old fell asleep peacefully in the early hours of the morning. It was only in October that his younger brother Elmar died at the age of 79.
Wepper, who as a Protestant Christian felt connected to Buddhism, is said to have ordered that he be buried in a black kimono. He wore this for daily meditation. Prayer was also important to him, as he once confessed. It carried him through many problems and worries.
The Wepper brothers are exemplary of the TV and film history of the Federal Republic. They had no memory of their father, who died in the war. The mother raised the sons alone in Munich – “with a lot of love, sometimes with too much love,” as Fritz said in an interview. Both of them graduated from high school. Fritz took part in children’s programs on Bavarian Radio at an early age and was enthusiastic about the theater. He became internationally known in 1959 with the anti-war film “Die Brücke” by Bernhard Wicki.
Sniffed Hollywood air
From 1969 Wepper started on ZDF. Alongside Erik Ode as “Commissioner” he got the role of assistant “Harry Klein”. The series had huge ratings and gave him huge popularity. After five years, his brother Elmar took over his place in the team as “Erwin Klein”. He, on the other hand, changed his role name to “Derrick” and then spent 24 years solving murder cases with Horst Tappert as the eponymous senior inspector. A crime series that ran in more than 100 countries. It became a cult, just like the much-rumored line “Harry, pull the car over,” even though it wasn’t used in a single episode.
Wepper got a taste of Hollywood air when he played the young Fritz Wendel in the film adaptation of the musical “Cabaret”, who initially denied his Jewish roots out of fear of the Nazis in Berlin in 1931. The production won eight Oscars. But a US career that was offered to him didn’t work out because he was tied to German TV contracts. What remained was a friendship with leading actress Liza Minnelli. At the US star’s concerts in Munich, she always euphorically greeted her “darling Fritz” in the front row. Finally, she called for prayers for him.
An Arte article from 2009 for the series “Through the night with…” shows how well they got along, in which both of them toured New York. Wepper also presented himself as an expert on the art of US painter Mark Rothko.
The departure of “Derrick” did not mean the end of his assistant’s career. Wepper had previously made one or two TV films and made guest appearances in series. With his daughter Sophie as a young journalist and him as a psychiatrist, 15 episodes of “Murder in the Best Company” were created; in “The Brothers” he played an unlikely pair of brothers with Elmar 17 times: Fritz the serious public prosecutor, Elmar a shady cop.
A heavenly ratings hit
They showed their funny side in the BR comedy series “Kanal fatal”. In several episodes they were the “Two Bavarians in Space” who conquered space with their spaceship Bavarian Shuffle 1. Of course, as the older brother, Fritz was the commander, just like in real life, and Elmar had to be content with the deputy role. Nevertheless, the two had an intense bond and shared a passion for fly fishing, where they found relaxation.
The ARD series “Um Himmels Willen”, which ran for 20 years, became a heavenly ratings hit for the older Wepper. As mayor Wolfgang Wöller, Wepper fought his small war first with Jutta Speidel as sister Lotte and then with Janina Hartwig as sister Hanna. He would have liked to continue, but after 260 episodes it was over in 2021.
The actor made headlines with his private life while his wife Angela, who died in 2019, was still alive. At 71 he became the father of another daughter. Even though it wasn’t easy, he managed to create a situation that was acceptable to all parties. “It is slowly taking on human forms,” he told the Catholic News Agency (KNA) in 2012. He married the mother of his child, the director Susanne Kellermann, in 2020: “I just try to accept things as they are: here and now,” was Wepper’s credo. He treated death the same way.