He is one of the most popular Germans: Hape Kerkeling. But who is behind this cheerful nature? Where does he come from, where are his roots? During the Corona crisis, he left – and went looking for answers. They turn out surprisingly.
“I’ll be off then,” said Hape Kerkeling a few years ago, going on the Way of St. James, writing a book about it and celebrating a bestseller success with it. Film adaptation included. After that it got a little quieter. “Give me some time,” is the motto from the happy nature from the Pott, the “Rumpel-Rübe from Recklinghausen”. He is taking advantage of the difficult times of the coronavirus pandemic and doing genealogy research and looking for his roots. He finds them and lots of little anecdotes from his life and that of his ancestors. The next bestseller is certain – in book and audio book form.
The reasons for this lie in Kerkeling’s person. He is a sympathetic person of the finest kind. You can’t hold anything against him, you forgive him everything, you just have to love him. For some it’s quicker – for example if you come from the Ruhr area – for some it takes a little longer. But in the end you can’t help but like Hape and listen to his words on the audio book you read yourself and go on a journey into the past with him.
“Where do we come from?”
Kerkeling’s eleven-hour audio book journey begins with great words from the Talmud: “Know where you come from, where you are going and to whom you will one day give account.” Where you come from is one of the most crucial questions in life, says Kerkeling: “What if we really knew that? Without knowing where I come from, how can I say where my life’s journey should go?”
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For Kerkeling it is clear: “Our grandma comes from Tanzania. That is completely undisputed, irrefutable and a good thing.” By the way, her name is Lucy, she is around three million years old, was dug up by American archaeologists in 1974 and can now be visited in the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. “The great mother of all the earth’s inhabitants was African,” said Kerkeling. “So every racist is not only a monster, but also a nasty grandma hater.”
A descendant of Lucy was around a million years later, somewhere in Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and the Tigris, also called Eden: Eva. “But it’s also clear: Eva, our famous mom from paradise, was Arab.” This sets the tone – a clear stance against all “Bernd” Höckes and the other fascists and xenophobes.
Kerkeling is a native German. But the German per se does not exist: “The German comes from abroad, namely from all of his neighboring countries and neighboring regions. We have all moved over, or up, or down… If you like, the German is a Polish Dutchman from Milan , with French and Swedish grandparents from Bern, a Jewish aunt from St. Petersburg and a Serbian uncle from Vienna.”
There are many surprises lurking within us
Kerkeling describes the basics of genealogy research in his book. Exciting and anything but boring: “After just ten generations, or rather after 250 years, you end up with 1024 direct ancestors, the so-called progenitors.” Until then everything is relatively reliable. “If you go back 24 generations, which corresponds to around 600 years, you end up with a whopping 16,777,216 arch-ancestral great-grandparents. That corresponds roughly to the population of North Rhine-Westphalia.” In short: the further back you go in your research, the less total population is available for the calculation, while at the same time the ancestry density increases noticeably. For comparison: In the 15th century, there were only six metropolises with more than 20,000 inhabitants within today’s borders of Germany, including Ulm and Magdeburg, as well as Cologne, Bremen and Lübeck. At that time, Paris was the largest city in Europe – with around 80,000 inhabitants. With this knowledge you can now make clever jokes at many a party.
When the Amstel calls
And Kerkeling? Where are his roots, apart from our grandma from Tanzania? “Genetically, I’m mainly Dutch,” he says. He proves this with “Give me some time.” He sends his DNA to a laboratory in Texas and, several weeks later, receives the first clues about his ancestors. But he also does his own research, goes into dark office basements, looks through dusty stocks, certificates and letters. Discover connections that amaze those listening, make them smile on the one hand, but also leave them shocked and disbelieving on the other.
Kerkeling takes listeners back to the 15th century, the 17th century, the early years of the last century, the 1930s and his own teenage and twenties. Kerkeling himself describes “Give me some time” (published by Piper and Audiobook Hamburg) as a “chronicle”. That fits. The book is not an autobiography in the classic sense, but it doesn’t want to be either. Kerkeling reveals personal things that touch the heart, touch deeply and have an impact. At the end of the 1980s, his then-boyfriend became fatally ill with AIDS. But there is also the sentence: “Germany sometimes takes my breath away.”
It’s the little things that make “Give me some time” a special book and audio book and that impressively prove why Hape Kerkeling is loved in this country and throughout Europe. You would think he had royal roots and blue blood running through his veins. Who knows? That’s not rare, if I believe my maternal grandmother, I have a branch somewhere in my family tree that reaches into the Swedish royal family. And then there would also be a connection to the Catterfelds, yes, the Yvonne. Give me some time too, I have to do some genealogy research…
