Hape Kerkeling
New film with cult figure Horst Schlämmer
Trench coat, mustache and overbite: Comedian Hape Kerkeling wants to revive his cult figure Horst Schlämmer.
© ddp/Christian Langbehn
“The Horst is coming back”. With these words, comedian Hape Kerkeling announced the return to the cinema of his cult figure Horst Schlämmer.
Around 15 years after the theatrical release of “Horst Schlämmer – I’m running!” Cult comedian Hape Kerkeling (59) has announced his return to the cinema as fictional journalist Horst Schlämmer. The 59-year-old revealed this on the sidelines of the “Düsseldorfer of the Year” award ceremony on April 22nd “Rhineland Post”. “And next year, God willing, there will be a Horst Schlämmer film,” Kerkeling said literally at the event.
Horst Schlämmer is supposed to help the audience through “difficult times”.
Kerkeling received the “Düsseldorfer of the Year” award in Düsseldorf for his life’s work. His popular fictional character Horst Schlämmer comes from nearby Grevenbroich. There he works as a journalist for the fictional “Grevenbroicher Tagblatt”. In Schlämmer’s dialect, Kerkeling explained the return of his cult figure: “Weiss, Horst is coming back. Yes, back this way, back this way. No. It has to happen again.” The entertainer also gave a reason for the surprising cinema comeback: “These difficult times cry out for clear answers. And Horst has them.”
Horst Schlämmer first appeared in the RTL program “Hape meets” in 2005. The character was very popular on German television in the 2000s. The comedy film “Horst Schlämmer – I’m a candidate!” followed in 2009. It attracted over 1.3 million visitors to the cinemas. In the film by Kerkeling’s former partner Angelo Colagrossi (64), local journalist Schlämmer, frustrated with his work, made the plan to become Chancellor and founded his own party for this purpose.