Hans-Günther Kaufmann about Sister Christine: "I've never seen so much abyss"

Created: 05/24/2022, 07:00

By: Stephan Müller-Wendlandt

Hans-Günter Kaufmann and Elisabeth Carr show impressive, touching and very emotional pictures of the actress Christine Kaufmann, who died in 2017, in Kempfenhausen Castle.

© Andrea Jaksch

In an exhibition in Kempfenhausen Castle, Hans-Günther Kaufmann is showing, among other things, unpublished photos of his sister, the actress Christine Kaufmann.

They contain pure beauty - but also sadness, helplessness and fear.

Kempfenhausen – Elisabeth Carr doesn't deal with just any topic in her “Art Rooms by the Lake”.

She allows herself to be attracted by the coincidental, the surprising and encounters on a variety of spiritual levels.

The artist of your next exhibition is a kindred spirit: the photographer, filmmaker and author Hans-Günther Kaufmann.

Under the motto "The little sister and the big friend" he brings the nature of two very different characters closer, who were his dearest companions.

The "little sister" was Christine Kaufmann, successful film and theater actress with Hollywood consecrations, the "big friend" was Odilo Lechner, Benedictine abbot of St. Bonifaz Munich and Andechs monastery.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the deaths of both.

The exhibition, which starts Sunday May 29th,

Carr's family connections to the Kaufmann siblings go back decades.

Around 1950, Carr's mother, Mathilde Steininger, was their teacher in Bad Aibling.

The Kaufmanns fled France in the last year of the war and ended up in Upper Bavaria.

Christine was born in a stable in Styria while trying to escape.

The Kaufmanns were always present in Elisabeth Carr's home in Starnberg, she reports. She intensified contact with Hans-Günther Kaufmann after the death of his sister.

Kempfenhausen Castle was chosen with care.

Shortly before her death, Christine Kaufmann visited the place for the first time.

She was enthusiastic and raved about organizing a reading there.

It didn't come to that anymore.

Photos show Christine Kaufmann between the ages of 15 and 60

Hans-Günther Kaufmann now shows previously unpublished photos of his sister.

The black-and-white photographs, taken with analog technology and chemically developed in the laboratory, were taken between Christine's 15th and 60th year.

They show an overwhelmingly beautiful woman.

The viewer can also see sadness, helplessness and fear in some of the pictures in her eyes.

His sister was a glamorous personality, but led a chaotic and by no means happy life, says the brother.

"I've never seen so much abyss." The price for success and constant physical presence: inner turmoil and despair.

The reveal the following sentence from her mouth: "Günther, you won't believe how exhausting it is to have to be beautiful."

Kaufmann admits that growing up, he was self-serving because of his younger sister's success.

“I had my own photo studio when I was 18, and a year later I bought my first Jaguar.” For complex shoots, he “jetted to dream islands with dream women”.

He enjoyed life to the fullest, "up to the point when I realized I'd reached the roof, it doesn't get any higher."

Life in the countryside, no longer in Munich but in the Miesbach district, proved to be a new challenge.

Kaufmann was attracted by rural photo motifs.

"It could be a natural spectacle or a Corpus Christi procession."

Kaufmann won over the Benedictine abbot Odilo Lechner as the copywriter for the planned new book with photos of the country.

Also thanks to a tip from the former district home attendant Paul-Ernst Rattelmüller from Leutstetten.

Odilo granted the photographer an audience - it was the beginning of an intimate friendship and fruitful collaboration.

Abbot Odilo was the stark contrast to his sister, says Kaufmann.

“She was beside herself all her life, he was a person who was at peace with himself.” Kaufmann accidentally rediscovered a relic from that creative period: a recording with Abbot Odilo's texts.

He left them to him with the comment: "Maybe they will go well with another photo book." That was 20 years ago, today the texts are made for the photos that he presents in a homage to Odilo, who died in 2017.

The event in Kempfenhausen Castle

The event in Kempfenhausen Castle lasts until June 19th.

On May 29th, June 5th and 12th, Kaufmann will personally guide you through the exhibition.

More information on the internet at kunstraeume-am-see.de.