Ulrich Matthes
Awarded in the presence of Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel was also present when Ulrich Matthes (front) was honored.
© imago images/Future Image
Ulrich Matthes was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on May 3rd. Angela Merkel was also there.
Ulrich Matthes (62) was killed by Frank-Walter Steinmeier (66) on May 3 awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in Bellevue Palace. In addition to Matthes and Steinmeier, “friends, companions, supporters of one of the greats among German actors” were also present, as the Federal President put it in his speech. Among them was, surprisingly, former Chancellor Angela Merkel (67), who has recently only made a few public appearances.
Steinmeier “closed his heart to Matthes”
Matthes is valued and revered, but the actor probably wouldn’t have won the “Golden Curtain” three times in 2017 if the audience “hadn’t also taken him to their hearts”. Steinmeier feels the same way. In particular, he thinks of Matthes’ appearance on “Violins of Hope” in 2015. The 62-year-old has “such an inimitable sense of the situation” and knows what he can and must expect of the audience. “Far beyond any craft, you know what you’re doing – what you’re speaking, acting, acting.”
Matthes is even better known to many not from the theater but from film and television. “Born in pain”, with Matthes as the villain, is “one of the best ‘crime scenes'” for the Federal President. According to Steinmeier, the actor is also an “extremely well-read” and, among other things, “a committed, thoughtful, self-critical contemporary”, as he emphasized when he was awarded the Cross of Merit, 1st class, of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.