Frank Ripploh

Frank Ripploh (1986 in Munich)

Frank Ripploh (also known as Peggy von Schnottgenberg ) (born September 2, 1949 in Rheine / Westphalia; † June 24, 2002 in Rheine / Westphalia) was a German actor , writer and director .

Career

Ripploh became known through his film Taxi zum Klo (1980), in which he worked as a leading actor, author and director . Taxi to the toilet made the openly gay Berlin secondary school teacher Ripploh, who was supposed to be disciplined by the school authorities after his coming out as a gay on the cover of Stern magazine in 1978, famous overnight and became a gay cult film of the pre-AIDS era. Ripploh received the Max Ophüls Prize in 1981 for the film, which was shot with a budget of only DM 100,000 .

After studying philosophy in Münster, he worked as a secondary school teacher in West Berlin from 1972.

Even before he was, under the pseudonym "Peggy of Schnottgenberg", short story writer and actor in films Axel von Auersperg and monologue of a star of Rosa von Praunheim and in two films by Ulrike Ottinger , Enchantment of the Blue Sailors and Madame X , to the side of Tabea Blumenschein , whom he later engaged for a role in Taxi to the toilet .

Frank Ripploh achieved nationwide fame when he was portrayed in 1978 for the Stern report “I am gay”. Together with 681 other homosexual men mentioned by name, he publicly came out: “I'm tired of constantly playing hide and seek. We gays must finally educate the 'normal' about us. We no longer want to be unpopular outsiders. Especially those who don't want to hear it, we have to tell to their faces that we are homosexual. "The administration of the district office of Berlin-Neukölln responded with the accusation that Frank Ripploh had" inappropriately spread his sexual behavior in public «. So it happened that the teacher for German and English was not transferred to civil servant status because he was certified as having severe damage due to increased liver values. Ripploh had his own interpretation of the situation: "They wanted to get rid of me because I'm gay."

In 1978 he had also drawn attention to himself in Berlin with a slide show that ran for weeks in the arthouse cinema “Capitol Dahlem” entitled Hemorrhage or like a star in the night . In 1979 he played a small role under the direction of Elfi Mikesch in Execution - A Study of Mary and in 1982 in Querelle , the last film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder , at whose side he was also in 1982 in the science fiction thriller Kamikaze 1989 in one small role as a gangster appeared. Together with Miko , he made the semi-biographical film Miko - From the gutter to the stars in 1986 .

From 1992 to 1994 he wrote film reviews, directorial portraits and interviews as a freelancer for Stern and Die Woche .

In the last years of his life he rented wrestling films and produced the hardcore film Strip & Fick .

In 2002 he succumbed to cancer. Rosa von Praunheim wrote in an obituary: “He was ... a vicious chick and yet I loved him very much for a while. He had ... a pitch-black humor and we often laughed to death at the mistakes of our lovers. "

Filmography (selection)

• 1974: Axel von Auersperg (actor)
• 1975: monologue of a star (actor)
• 1975: Infatuation of the Blue Sailors (actor)
• 1977: Madame X (actor and assistant director)
• 1979: Execution - A Study of Mary (Actor)
• 1980: Taxi to the toilet (author, director, leading actor)
• 1982: Querelle (actor)
• 1982: Kamikaze 1989 (actor)
• 1986: Miko - From the gutter to the stars (director and actor)
• 1987: Taxi to Cairo (director and actor)
• 2001: Strip & Fuck (Director and Producer)

Web links

• Frank Ripploh in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Esser: Taxi to the toilet . Ed .: 31st Berlin International Film Festival. S. 44 .
2. ↑ Niels Kummer: I'm gay . In: Stern magazine . No. 41 , October 1978, p. 104-116 .
3. ↑ Sch (w) ul example . In: Tip . tape 5/79 , March 2, 1979.
4. ↑ Thomas Wessel: "Taxi" to success . In: Hessische Allgemeine . April 4th 1981.