Dieter Hallervorden: “My emotional world has been given an incredible boost”

Dieter Hallervorden arrived at the CDU Saxony-Anhalt election party shortly after 5 p.m. on Sunday, still drawing people toward him for selfies after barely five meters of walking. The 91-year-old actor had spent the campaign trying to help the party move forward, but he left the event visibly dejected.

Hallervorden had appeared four times with CDU candidate Sven Schulze. They discussed politics, Hallervorden sang songs, and the events carried the slogan “Art needs freedom.” For the CDU, he had become a kind of rebellious mascot during the campaign.

The alliance was not straightforward. Hallervorden does not think much of the federal CDU, and his support for the party in Saxony-Anhalt stood in tension with that view. The article presents him as a committed pacifist who nevertheless chose to campaign for the regional CDU.

The timing was also personal. Hallervorden had celebrated his 91st birthday on Saturday, the same day that a new play opened at his Berlin theater. Titled Putsch: Anleitung zur Zerstörung einer Demokratie, the play focuses on the seizure of power by right-wing populists and received a very positive review in B.Z.

At the election party in Magdeburg, however, the celebratory mood gave way to disappointment. Hallervorden’s presence had helped draw attention to the campaign, but the result left him asking whether the effort had been in vain.

“

Art needs freedom.