He was Germany’s only relevant late-night talker and TV major satirist par excellence for years – Harald Schmidt will turn 65 on Thursday and apparently doesn’t expect much from the state in terms of retirement provision. Because: He accumulates only one mini-pension for the rest of his life.
According to his own statement, the 64-year-old is paid 272 euros a month and says: “I’ll take that too, I’ve paid, I deserve it”. And further: “It’s not alms, it’s a deal I made with the state. Carry it forward!” Although he was a freelancer most of the time, he “paid in full for 15 years”, which at least entitles him to this “mini-pension”. It should also be clear that he won’t starve into old age: The entertainment icon may have saved money privately. But not a word came out of him about this.
He is also cryptic about his birthday plans and usually says in a smug and ironic Schmidt style: “I don’t know yet whether I’ll surprise my guests or whether my guests will surprise me. Maybe we can.” Just set off a small table fireworks as part of “We All Have to Save.” “Rhine in Flame” is not possible because there is no water.”
Harald Schmidt: just under 300 euro pension
With or without table fireworks: there is one or the other success for its 65th that the natives of Neu-Ulm can look back on. He was left behind in the eighties and nineties, at the peak of his work as a genre-defining entertainer with awards and applause. Since 1990 with Herbert Feuerstein moderating “Schmidtenender” and “Do You Think Fun?” From 1992, “Dirty Harry” began its late-night success in 1995.
Around the turn of the millennium, the “Harald Schmidt Show” became a staple of Sat.1. At the height of his success, Schmidt was allowed to do whatever he wanted. “My megalomania is that I consider myself the greatest entertainer in contemporary history,” he told “Stern” at the time. But the golden years are long gone, and Schmidt himself doesn’t even want to return to television: “No, I’ve had enough of that,” said the 64-year-old.
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And previous comeback attempts failed as well: in 2011, ARD dismissed him with poor ratings, in 2012 Sat.1 dismissed him because of the pitiful response – and the following divisional existence on the pay channel Sky without any murmurs. ended in 2014.
Since then, Schmidt has been acting in theaters and occasionally involved in other forms of media, for example as a video columnist for “Speegel Online” or more recently as the Amazon streaming show “One Mic Stand”. But as a celebrity coach. But: they have “more than enough” to do, he told Editorial Network Germany (RND). “I’m not in this hamster wheel anymore.” (alp/dpa)
