He was considered by many to be Germany’s last playboy, he shaped the nightlife of his homeland, to which he returned after the war. He has now died at the age of 92, according to his family.
The former Berlin nightlife great Rolf Eden is dead. He died at the age of 92, his family said: “With Rolf Eden, Berlin is also losing an icon of its time and he loved and changed this city like no other.” Eden was a very successful Berlin nightclub and property owner, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. But he was known not least for his self-portrayal as a playboy.
“I don’t sleep twice with the same woman” – Eden stood for such sayings. He is said to have showered women with compliments and gifts – and yet never deceived them into thinking that they were just one of many. The actress Ursula Buchfellner, who was in a relationship with him for several years, once reported that Eden gave her a valuable ring on the day of their separation. She has never experienced so much generosity again.
Eden, whose real name was Rolf Sigmund Sostheim, was born in 1930 as the son of a Jewish family in Berlin. Three years later she fled from the National Socialists to Palestine. Eden later said it was lucky that his parents were so clever and left Germany in 1933. As a young man he fought in the Israeli War of Independence; of the 1,200 front-line soldiers in his unit, only 400 survived. After the war, he first lived in Paris and then returned to Berlin. In 1957 he opened his first nightclub in the frontline town of the Cold War.
He influenced West Berlin nightlife with his clubs, he is said to have partied with the Rolling Stones and danced with Ella Fitzgerald. The “Big Eden” on Kurfürstendamm was best known – also among the many students who visited it on class trips in the 1980s. Eden later sold the clubs.
Filmmaker Peter Dörfler documented his eventful life in the film “The Big Eden” – it was screened at the Berlinale 2011. In it, Rolf Eden said about himself that he was both a playboy and a businessman. He was known for his white jackets and blond hair. A city magazine once voted him the “most embarrassing Berliner”. It’s a huge honor, he thinks it’s very good, said Eden in the trailer for the film. At the age of 82 he had submitted his biography. Her title was: “Always lucky. How I became Germany’s most famous playboy”.