Dietl, Helmut

Helmut Dietl grew up in Munich, after the divorce of his parents, he was often raised with his grandmothers. Helmut's father died of cancer in 1970. Helmut's paternal grandfather is an Austrian actor Fritz Greiner . Having received a certificate of maturity in a real gymnasium in Schwabing , Dietl entered the University of Munich , where he studied theater art and art history, but did not complete his education. He worked as an administrator on television, then as an assistant director at the Munich Chamber Theater. He made his television debut in 1974 at the Bayerischer Rundfunk with "Munich Stories", observations of Munich society. A career breakthrough came after the television series Der ganz normale Wahnsinn in 1979. In 1979-1983, Dietl worked in Los Angeles, and returning to his homeland, he shot for ARD the 10-episode television movie Monaco Franze - Der ewige Stenz , which was released in 1983. He later shot the 6-serial television movie Kir Royal commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk , shown on ARD in 1986. By this time, Helmut Dietl was considered one of the most famous television directors in the German-speaking region. Dietl wrote several scripts for film and television with his friend Patrick Suskind .

The perfectionist Dietl shot his first film in 1992, it was “Schtonk!” Featuring Uwe Oksenknecht , Götz Georges and Christiana Herbiger . An ironic film about publishing Hitler's fake diaries in Hamburg's Stern magazine in 1983 was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and won the Deutscher Filmpreis Award for Best Film and Best Director. Dietl managed to repeat this double triumph with the Rossini film - oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief (1997), by his own definition of “melodrama” about Munich society. In 1999, a movie by the Dietl Late Show about the media industry was released in cinemas in Germany, which was watched by almost 900 thousand people.

In late 1995, Dietl began collaborating with private television. He entered into a five-year contract with Sat.1 and worked on the channel as a screenwriter, director and executive producer. Dietl was also involved in attracting young talents. In 2001, together with Gerhard Hegel, Dietl made a television film Wambo , a free interpretation of the life and death of actor Walter Sedlmayr .

In 2005, Dietl directed the comedy Vom Suchen und Finden der Liebe , an adaptation of the legend of Orpheus . Criticism of Dietl’s work was cool. Since March 2011, Dietl was shooting the film "Zetl", a political satire and the continuation of the television series Kir Royal . The film, based on a script written in conjunction with Benjamin von Stukrad-Barre , tells how the driver Zetl, performed by Michael Herbig, made a dizzying take-off to the chief editor online publications in Berlin. The film, whose value amounted to 10 million euros, was released on the screens of cinemas on February 2, 2012, but despite the star cast it was defeated by critics and ignored by the public. Dietl, by his own admission, was hard pressed to experience this failure, which may have affected his state of health.

Helmut Dietl was married four times. He made his first marriage with journalist Karin Wichmann, then married Austrian actress Barbara Valentin . In his third marriage, Ditl was with Frenchwoman Denise Sheiresi, then close relations connected him in 1990-1999 with actress Veronica Ferres , who played in many of his films. Dietl concluded his last marriage in 2002 with former TV presenter n-tv , director and film producer Tamara Duve , daughter of politician Freimut Duve . In July 2003, the daughter of Serafina Maria was born to the couple. In addition to her, Dietl has two more children: son David (born 1979) from Marianne Denler, secretary and confidant of Bernd Eichinger , and daughter Sharon (born 1969) from Karin Wichmann.

In a November 2013 interview with Die Zeit weekly, Helmut Dietl admitted that he suffered a stroke in 2007. In October 2013, a severe stage lung cancer was discovered by heavy chain smoker Dietl, which led to his death in 2015. Helmut Dietl is buried in the Bogenhausen cemetery .

• Dietl, Helmut at the German National Library .
• filmportal.de (German)