The Limited Times

Jan Fedder's funeral: "He left a script for his last appearance"

12/29/2020, 11:25:54 PM


Nadine Metgenberg is actually a wedding planner, but is increasingly organizing funeral services - for example those of actor Jan Fedder. Here she tells what weddings and funerals have in common.

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Jan Fedder's rose-adorned coffin is carried out of the Michel: "He wanted the celebration to be more like a wedding"

Photo: Daniel Reinhardt / dpa

SPIEGEL:

Ms. Metgenberg, in January you organized the funeral service for actor Jan Fedder in Hamburg's Michel.

How did that happen?

Metgenberg:

Marion Fedder, his widow, said to me: "I want Jan to have the most beautiful funeral that Hamburg has ever seen." The funeral should be both very personal and a thank you to all his fans.

That was quite a balancing act.

Jan Fedder had suffered from cancer for many years, so he had planned his memorial service in detail.

He was an actor through and through, and he had left an exact script for his last appearance.

SPIEGEL:

What did these stage directions say?

Metgenberg:

He wanted the celebration to be more like a wedding than a classic funeral, that's why there was so much music and hundreds of red roses.

He had written and sung a song for his wife for this moment.

It sounded as his coffin was carried out of the church.

To hear his voice at that moment was very moving.

Hollywood ripe.

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