Eckart von Hirschhausen: "I'm not a Nutella-glass, I do not have to like everyone"
Bahar can not believe it. Eckart von Hirschhausen is actually in her room at the Stuttgart children's hospice. For days his visit to the house was topic number one. And now the guy has no idea. Bahar sits in her wheelchair and giggles until she has to cough, no wonder at the eleven percent of lung output that the slim girl has remained. But the view from this Hirschhausen! How dumbfounded all the posters of Shah Rukh Khan plastering their walls and did not know that Shah Rukh is the biggest Bollywood star ever. "If he would visit me, that would be awesome," Bahar says quietly, because it would be too loud. She grins at Hirschhausen from below. "But you are okay too." Everyone in the room is laughing.
What is it about? To laugh!
That's what it's about here. To the laughter. To humor in a serious environment, in which cared and suffered and died long before the time. Bahar is 23, she is one of the first residents of the new children's hospice in the former villa of a Stuttgart chocolate producer. Shortly before the turn of the year she almost died of her lung disease, which is so rare that she does not yet have a name. She has berappelt again. "But 2018 is my last year," she says. And he prunes. "Although: I already said that in 2017."
Hirschhausen smiles. He does not have to say much. He just listens, good doctors do that. And others do the bespicking anyway. The Twister Twins namely, Alex and Theo, volunteers in colorful suits air balloon animals and good mood, to Bahar, the other two residents, healthy siblings and their parents, who often suffer more than the patients.
Von Hirschhausen is a doctor, magician and science journalist - is that even possible?
Eckart von Hirschhausen founded a foundation more than ten years ago, called "Humor hilft hilft" and supports clown visits, research projects and workshops for carers. His motto: Strengthen the humane in human medicine, and bring joy to where there is just little to laugh.
Therefore, he visits a children's hospice before he stands on stage in the evening. He is also the moderator of "Hirschhausen's Quiz of the People" in Das Erste, writes for his own magazine "Healthy Life" (which appears as ChroniquesDuVasteMonde in the publisher Gruner + Jahr) - which is obvious, because Hirschhausen is not just a doctor, to be Studying with magic has earned, but also science journalist.
For the magazine, he has just met "a totally exciting woman", who is researching pain. And in three hours, he will be on stage in the center of the city in the Hegel-Saal, playing his new program in front of almost 2,000 people, which is also part of his core business. He produces joke CDs, writes books, lectures. Quite a lot of professions - "alas," he says, "I do not know".
It's like a tree to me. Everything has the same roots with medicine, humor and mediation, and the branches stretch in different directions.
There are still 40 minutes to go to Stuttgart, he has just completed the soundcheck, played a round of table tennis with his sound engineer ("The record is always on tour") and shook hands with a group of advertisers from his magazine. Now he's taking a few spoonfuls of vegetable curry, "good catering here, right?"
His mission: make us healthier!
He completes his stint at a breathtaking pace, it is not easy to follow the expansive steps of his long legs. On the other hand, he is sovereign in everything he does. And that's because of the inner conviction. Hirschhausen is not just a doctor who has become an entertainer and publicist. He has a mission: He wants to make us healthier. "I do not want to be just a fun uncle," he says.
Two or three years ago, to his own astonishment, he realized that he is somebody to be listened to seriously, and not just for the sake of amusement. For a long time, Hirschhausen felt that he was "working in secret, as a marginal phenomenon". If someone under 25 asked for an autograph, then with the addition: is for my mother. That's different now. Hirschhausen, that has become a house number in the German public.
He is the doctor of the nation. He would be pretty stupid if he did not take advantage of that.
He is meticulously anxious to control his public image. He wants to approve photos before the publication, the thrust of interviews, he discusses intensively in advance with journalists, in great detail. And he makes it clear that he does not answer questions about a possible wife or children, he has had some bad experiences there. But for his cause he is open.
Because Hirschhausen is dissatisfied with the way in which health is perceived in Germany."In the 80s, doctors have also clearly positioned themselves against nuclear weapons," he says and takes a drink of water, even 30 minutes to the performance. What is with the health literacy, which is conveyed absurdly badly in Germany In Scandinavia first aid is a compulsory subject in the school! What about the care emergency, which gets worse, because this profession has no lobby at all? " In 2017 he was honored as a "friend of the care" at the German Nursing Day, "that meant a lot to me."
Even aging takes from Hirschhausen with humor
He has to go out now. Singing, juggling, joking, philosophizing. He wears the clothes all day long, it is a slightly battered chic, blue pants, a matching vest, a shirt that peels in some places from the pants, tie. There would have been no time to move. "Finally" is the name of his new program, it's about getting older, a topic that occupies him.
50 he is now, hard for one who feels like an eternal student. And now he makes jokes about it, in front of an audience that is on average younger than him - that's also new to him. "Aging," he calls out to his viewers right at the beginning, "is not a workplace accident." Aging is intentional. " So he works his way through his program, with expertise, statistics, crude and clever brainstorms. "If every one of you just takes a nice thought of that evening home," he says in the end, "that's 2000 beautiful thoughts."
His optimism is often fatal to him
Eckart von Hirschhausen is positive and free of malice, which sets him apart from most comedians. "And that is also often accused me: that I'm too nice and harmless," he says. "I always say then: Show me examples of where someone with cynicism has moved people to make a positive change, and I think it's much bolder not to hide behind a mask and use his index finger to tickle, not to threatening. " He is more vulnerable.
But I'm not a Nutella glass. I do not have to like everyone.
He does not. There are plenty of people who rub their felt omnipresence. "A good therapeutic question is always: who exactly has the problem?" Says Hirschhausen.
And after all, it was also nonsense that he appears to appear everywhere: "I make eight programs on the ARD throughout the year.Lanz, Kerner, Jauch, Pilawa were phased every day to see." He says: What the people in you see has, at best, an intersection with what is important to you. "The playwright Moritz Rinke, an acquaintance of Hirschhausen, once told him: You must not take success personally you can not choose what you are loved for.
Stuttgart, the next day. At half past nine in the morning, the doctor has his next appearance. This time in front of doctors, pharmacists, representatives of pharmaceutical associations - Hirschhausen is the patron of "My Plan", an initiative for the correct intake of medicines. The outfit is the same as the day before and a little bit it looks like he slept in it.
Von Hirschhausen is sharply criticizing the health system
"I am more serious today," he says. "If you want something to laugh about, come to Pforzheim this evening." And then he starts, against smug doctors and compliant pharmacists, against the ailing system and unwillingness to improve it.
He is well informed, two journalists work for him and provide him with current studies. His Bessermacherei has a solid foundation. And despite all criticism a certain charm. No one is angry with him here, often even on the contrary. "I'm not the only one who finds something wrong with the healthcare system," he says, "the vast majority are glad that someone finally announces the absurdities of this system."
For him, this is not a profession - rather a vocation
And so he burns for his cause, often at both ends of the candle. The presenter of the event retold his program of the last days before she asked him on stage. "It can not be healthy," she said. The laughs belonged to her. Hirschhausen thought about it, later, with a bit of peace.
The signpost does not have to go the way itself. Does not feel like a job, what he does there. "It's like a vocation, even if it sounds pathetic, and anyway: If I realize how many artists have not been interested in sows during their lifetime, I really can not complain."
Yesterday in the hospice he did another round of therapy. In the den, he met Bahar again, she took some snapchat pictures with him and laughed a lot. Theo, the hospital clown of the Twister Twins, told him afterwards that she had not left her room for weeks, but that she had been following Eckart over several floors all over the house. Whatever one may say about Eckart von Hirschhausen, he moves people. Even those in which it was no longer expected.
