The Kessler Twins sisters Alice and Ellen die together aged 89 | Germany
Pop singers Alice and Ellen Kessler, who were credited with bringing glamor to Europe in the 1960s, particularly in Italy, to the country’s TV network, have died at the age of 89.
Wega Wetzel, spokeswoman for the Berlin-based assisted dying association Deutsche Gesellschaft für Humanes Sterben (DGHS), said the identical twins chose to have a jointly assisted death at their home in Grünwald, near Munich, on Monday.
Active euthanasia is prohibited in Germany, but according to the constitution everyone has the right to self-determination; This principle covers the freedom to take one’s own life and to benefit from voluntary assistance provided by third parties.
The sisters administered life-ending drugs in the presence of a doctor and lawyer, who then called the police. “The police come to check out the situation and the conditions, and if everything is OK then there’s no problem,” Wetzel said, adding that their decision was “made over a long period of time and was well thought out. There were no mental health issues.”
In an interview with Italy last year Corriere della SeraThe sisters said their wish was “to leave together on the same day… The idea of either of them going first is too hard to bear.”
Speaking to the German newspaper Bild, the couple said that they wanted their ashes to be placed in the same urn one day and buried next to their mother and their dog, Yello.
Born in Nerchau in 1936, the sisters started as child ballet dancers at the Leipzig Opera; Their singing and dancing careers began at age 16 after their family fled East Germany to Düsseldorf. They represented West Germany in the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest, placing eighth.
They performed at The Lido in Paris in the late 1950s, where they met Elvis Presley in 1959 and US-born Italian choreographer Don Lurio, who brought them to Italy in 1961.
Their careers went very well in Italy, where they were referred to as the “legs of the nation” by the male-dominated press. They made their debut in the country in Rai’s hugely popular musical variety shows Giardino d’inverno and Studio Uno.
The sisters became icons of talent, grace and female independence, whose success in Italy came at a time of strict conservative morals. However, with their popularity came controversy; women’s bare legs violated Rai’s strict dress code. They were made to wear thick black socks during their performances.
In an interview with Corriere, the Kesslers said: “We dressed very little on television but we always think we are elegant, never vulgar. There was criticism but that was a plus for us.”
They performed in films and theater productions throughout their subsequent careers in Italy.
The sisters also found success in the United States, where they performed with artists such as Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire. They lived together in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome until 1986, when they returned to Germany and settled in Grünwald.
They both had loves; Ellen was with Italian actor Umberto Orsini for 20 years; Alice had relationships with French actor Marcel Amont and Italian actor Enrico Maria Salerno. But they made a pact never to marry. In several interviews, they said that their decision was influenced by their mother’s unhappy marriage due to domestic violence.
They told the Corriere that their work gave them a clear sense of independence. “Since we were girls, we had a clear idea from the very beginning: we had to be independent. We didn’t want to be dependent on a man in any way.”
“We were feminists, but without even thinking about it: we started earning our own living from the age of 15. We were always independent. Maybe we ended up a little dependent on each other.”
