What do you expect when Michael Käfer presents his autobiography? Revelations from the Munich chic crowd? Dirty jokes and anecdotes from the world of the rich and famous, who have always loved to dine at the parent company of his delicatessen and gastronomy empire on Prinzregentenstraße and pop the champagne corks?
Yes, of course one expects that. However, one may say in advance that one will be disappointed. It’s not for nothing that the book is called “The Borrowed Friend”. That’s what Michael Käfer calls the perfect host and party maker he wants to be. In other words, one that fulfills as many of their wishes as possible and always remains loyal. Right in the foreword he makes it clear that he will already spread “episodes and experiences” that have arisen in his 64-year life so far. But always “within the framework that is allowed to me as a service provider and loaned friend, knowing full well that my customers always expect the highest degree of discretion from me and of course I get it”. As he explains on the phone, it’s a different time today: “In the past, when gossip reporters were heyday, it was almost more important what was in the newspaper than what the party was really like.”
For voyeurs, this book says: Unfortunately, we have to stay outside. Even if there are a lot of wild stories about the early days in P1, which the young Michael Käfer helped to build up as Munich’s first chic disco. Or perhaps the one in which a client, who is of course not named, wishes for a Bavarian oasis in the middle of the Moroccan desert for his party and gets it. The party service makes it possible. Who was the client? Sounds a lot like Ludwig II, but Käfer’s gastro empire only came into being long after the death of the Bavarian fairytale king. Of course, Michael Käfer does not reveal who his spiritual successor was.
With the helicopter over the flower heart: a marriage proposal
But you can find out exactly who once had a huge heart of flowers laid out on a slope of the Chapütschin mountain near St. Moritz in the dead of winter at around 3,300 meters. Only so that he could fly there with his beloved in a helicopter “over the Flüela Wishorn, the Rosställispitz and the Unghürhörner” and propose to her. It was, as you can guess, Michael Käfer himself, who asked for his Clarissa’s hand up there in the Swiss mountains. In the meantime, the two have been married to each other since July 7, 2007; ten years ago they became parents to twins Raphael and Niklas.
The little beetle – a photo from the family album.
(Photo: private)
That’s how you can do it if you have the wherewithal. But the episode is a little misleading. Michael Kaefer’s autobiography is by no means a baby shimmerless version of his life. Even if a former picturejournalist, Kai Psotta, who ghost-wrote it. He is introduced right at the beginning of the book and you learn that he is already a bit more than just a “borrowed friend”. Rather, one who is a bit part of the family. This is probably also a prerequisite for Käfer telling him so much about his life. Also things that he certainly shouldn’t have told, but which round off the picture of the people behind the public figure.
For example, he tells how many, many years ago he bought a large painting by the American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in New York, when he was still largely unknown. The picture was delivered to Munich by an art transport company, who quickly realized that it didn’t fit in Käfer’s apartment at all: it was simply too high. Käfer was then able to cancel the purchase. Which he regrets today, because it would be worth a multiple of what he paid back then.
In general, “The Borrowed Friend” is not a pompous heroic painting, quite the opposite. Refreshingly sympathetic, Michael Käfer also talks about defeats that hurt. Such as the fact that he was defeated by his big competitor Do & Co in the bidding competition for the stadium catering in the Olympic area. Or how he messed up his tickets before the 2013 Champions League final at London’s Wembley Stadium. It played Borussia Dortmund against FC Bayern. And the cards were gone. With outrageous luck, he and his friend finally got new tickets on the black market shortly before kick-off – but of all places in the fan block of Dortmund fans…
Some reads like Beckenbauer’s “One Like Me”
You don’t find out about this until page 60 of the book, although the whole story begins on page 13. All the pages in between are very much about Michael Käfer’s sporting and fan past. It’s quite entertaining, even if you wonder if you accidentally slipped into an athlete’s biography. Some things are almost reminiscent of Franz Beckenbauer’s early bestseller “One Like Me”. Since the ghostwriter Psotta ran away with the enthusiasm for sports. “Yes,” says Michael Käfer and laughs, “that’s a bit of a sport at the beginning, I’m not that obsessed with sports.”
But he’s open there too. Just like in the touching passages about the death of his father Gerd, with whom he only reconciled late, with whom he always had an ambivalent relationship because he felt abandoned when the company had gone downhill in the meantime. Money is always a symbol for something else, often something bigger. The fact that Käfer is ultimately also concerned with this other, greater thing is made very clear in his book.
Michael Käfer with Kai Psotta: “The borrowed friend – My life as a host”, Edel Books, 285 pages, 24.95 euros