Atze Schroeder
How therapy helped him
Little is known about the private life of the comedian behind the fictional character Atze Schröder.
© imago images/Andre Lenthe
Atze Schröder spoke openly about his family tragedy. Therapy finally helped him get over it.
Atze Schröder (56) keeps his private life strictly away from the public. Now the comedian is giving intimate insights into his life for the first time in his biography “Blue-Eyed: My Life as Atze Schröder” (Edel Books). The impetus for this came from his appearance on Markus Lanz’s (53) talk show in February 2020. At that time, the 56-year-old had tearfully told about his family tragedy.
In an interview with the magazine “Bunte”, the comedian now talks about these dark sides of his life. His father “experienced and committed terrible things as a minor tank driver during the war”. He gradually confided in Schröder about his “atrocities” when he was young. Nevertheless, the two apparently had a close relationship: “He was my dad and best friend at the same time,” says Atze Schröder. Father and son were “incredibly close”.
After the TV appearance, he worked through the past
He had “difficulties for a very long time” with his mother, but in the last few years before her death in 2013, the two “reconciled”. After his TV appearance on Markus Lanz, Atze Schröder began to “deal more and more with my tragic family history”. “Other dark stories came to light.” There have been a number of suicides in his family, including his grandmother.
In the family on the father’s side it was also “hell at home”. In the case of Atze Schröder’s great-grandfather, there were “only beatings and harshness”. “Longing for death and depression are big issues in our family. In the fourth generation, we talk about them very openly when we meet,” says the 56-year-old. The family tragedy “will eventually pass into the genes, that is undisputed”.
Thanks to therapy, life is now “easier” for Atze Schröder
The confrontation with the topic helped Atze Schröder to better explain certain areas of his personality. “I always had a lot of anger and sadness inside me,” he says. Therapy was “very healing” for him. “I can only recommend everyone to work on their past and do therapy. Everything else means suffering.” Life is now “easier” for him, according to the comedian.