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Big TV experiment after Ferdinand von Schirach: How do you want to die?

2020-11-22T10:18:15.644Z


Bestselling author Ferdinand von Schirach provokes the audience to think again. After the filming of “Terror” (2016), this time at the end of the film “God” you can vote on the question of whether euthanasia is ethically justifiable. An interview with Matthias Habich, who plays a man in “Gott” who wants to die.


Bestselling author Ferdinand von Schirach provokes the audience to think again.

After the filming of “Terror” (2016), this time at the end of the film “God” you can vote on the question of whether euthanasia is ethically justifiable.

An interview with Matthias Habich, who plays a man in “Gott” who wants to die.

  • On February 26, 2020, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that medical assistance to suicide is no longer prohibited in principle in Germany

  • The film questions whether a perfectly healthy person should be provided with lethal preparations

  • At the end of the TV experiment, the audience is allowed to vote

Matthias Habich is the dream cast for Mr. Gärtner in the film adaptation of Ferdinand von Schirach's play

"Gott"

, which ARD will show on November 23, 2020 at 8:15 pm.

The 80-year-old, who has appeared in around 100 films - for example as Victor Klemperer in "Klemperer" or as Hitler's doctor Haase in "Der Untergang" - brings across the desperation of the widower who wants to die.

Because he does it so grippingly, many scenes with him were cut out.

The viewer should form the most rational judgment possible.

Much to Habich's chagrin, as he tells us in an interview.

A conversation about respect for death - and the joy of life.

Euthanasia yes or no - as a spectator you are torn as to which side you should take.

Sometimes you are on the bishop's, then you think: the doctor is right!

Did you feel the same way?

Matthias Habich: Exactly.

This is called opinion-forming.

This helps educate people.

Everyone has to form their own opinion, but it has to be well-founded.

You have to know all the arguments for that.

Like the bishop who said we would indulge in enthusiasm for self-determination.

Today it is all about living life as easily as possible.

But it is not easy, we cannot always choose the easiest way.

Is he right?

Habich: Well, there is no one hundred percent self-determination.

We all depend on each other.

And our genes.

The bishop says life is a journey of suffering.

But it is also joy!

You don't have to make use of this euthanasia, but the fact that it is available in extreme cases is reassuring.

That has a psychological meaning.

It's like putting a sleeping pill on the bedside table - that's enough, you don't even have to swallow it, you are asleep because you are reassured that there is a way out.

Are you christian?

Yes, evangelical.

Habich: Evangelical, me too.

But in the course of life one breaks away from the church codes and has one's own image of God or of the hereafter or of the spirit that somehow holds us all together.

The church is no longer of great importance to me.

The bishop argues that life is a gift from God that cannot be returned.

Habich: A belief that arouses claustrophobic feelings in me.

I think there are many fellow human beings who simply no longer want to live because their emotional pain is too great.

If you sat on the hot stove for three years, you would look for a way out.

Should one let these people, who suffer so mentally, fidget for years on the spit?

I have a number of acquaintances who have committed suicide, and there was no other way.

Even as a friend, you couldn't do anything.

Habich: No.

I knew they suffered, but you can't control that anymore.

Such a person is then no longer accessible.

I find this consideration, that one should persuade someone to go on living, questionable.

There is no obligation to live as it says in the film ...

Habich: Exactly.

You have to respect the seriousness of a suicide wish.

You have now turned 80 yourself this year.

What is it like for you to deal with these questions?

Habich: What do you mean by that?

Don't you have the end of your life ahead of you?

Of course, of course.

Habich: Each of us.

I was afraid of death when I was twelve.

Does the fear of death accompany you for a lifetime?

Habich: Not every day, I'm a big displacer - like all of us.

I mean, we're all on death row, at some point the hangman will come with the keys.

At my age you can hear the keys rattling, but we all do.

It's good that the end is somehow more foreseeable for me now, I try to keep that out by consciously living the present.

They actually seem to have a great lust for life.

Habich: Yes, definitely.

And I always have reason to.

When I see how beautiful nature is or how nice it is to read a book, or how wonderful it is to listen to music or to talk to others, how good the food is, how the wine tastes and what it is triggers - there are so many reasons to enjoy life.

Unfortunately, there are many people who do not even see this and only focus on the negative.

Habich: Yes, they are blunt.

They don't even pick up the book, they don't go to a concert or whatever.

You don't see the suggestions.

You are not looking for them.

Now you are in a job that is very stimulating.

Why did you choose this project?

You will get a lot of offers.

Habich: The selection isn't that big either, don't be under any illusions.

And I'm often offered films that I'm not interested in.

I don't want to walk on the rollator or suffer from dementia, I've played all of that.

I'm waiting for roles where old men are in life.

What do I know, a bank robber breaking in somewhere for sick children.

Enriching yourself isn't great, but maybe for others.

I could imagine an aged Robin Hood figure.

Write it yourself, the script!

Habich: Yes, if I could write, I would have written scripts long ago, given the misery that is often sent to you.

But I just can't.

What is also often annoying: when older roles are played by boys who are made up old.

Instead of casting them with old actors.

Habich: Because they are afraid of sick leave during the shoot.

Insurance companies are often reluctant to sign a contract.

It's because of the cowardice of the producers.

I think that's terrible too.

Which I find even more terrible when old people also play old.

That is terrible!

(Laughs.) Unbearable.

I'm surrounded by people my age who are still full of juice.

They run up mountains, they run marathons.

Today's old person is no longer who we imagined when we were young.

My grandmother was sitting in the armchair and knitting.

It's over.

Grandma is walking in the Himalayas today.

Habich: Exactly.

They travel the world and get on the clock.

Strangely enough, there is this generation hostility.

In the past the old people were respected and their advice was sought - today there are shit storms on old people.

Even when I was young, I always enjoyed being with old people.

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2020-11-22

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