Frank Schäfer (hairdresser)

Frank Conte-Schäfer (born 1959 ) is a German actor and hairdresser. He was considered a style icon of the GDR.

Life

Frank Schäfer is the son of Gerd E. Schäfer , a television star in the GDR. Schäfer was kicked out of school because he had brought a record with him from the west. He was then to become a costume designer, learned fashion design and came to Reichenbach to study at a technical college .

He stuttered, became engaged to a woman, and began to be interested in men early on. He learned his hairdressing profession in the PGH "Modische Linie" on Schönhauser Allee . He worked as a make-up artist.

Schäfer came into the free fashion and artist scene in the GDR through the photographer Sven Marquardt, and took part in concerts and fashion shows.

In 1982 Schäfer played a striptease as a woman in a Rococo costume at Moritzburg Castle near Dresden . He played this role because an actress had failed and the well-known director Klaus Ehrlich needed a replacement. This was one of the rare depictions of homosexuality on GDR television.

Schäfer was raped by a police officer while he was in prison. In 1988 Schäfer went to the West because he was arrested again and again. He was supposed to put on make-up for a Heiner Müller production and used a ten-day exit visa to stay in the West.

In the 1990s its popularity grew, u. a. thanks to his reputation as a pubic hairdresser.

Schäfer runs a trendy barber shop ("Frank & Amanda") in Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin.

Filmography (selection)

• A dream in strawberry foil (in it Schäfer plays himself under the direction of Marco Wilms)
• Neurosia - 50 Years of Perverse (1995), autobiography by Rosa von Praunheim
• Back to go! (2000)
• Among Men - Gay in the GDR (2012)
• The 30 Most Legendary Pop Stars of the Eighties (2014)
• The hairdresser (RTL II, 2001)
• Washing, cutting, talking (one plus, 2014)

Web links

• Frank Shepherd in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• "I don't like chaos" Frank Schäfer in an interview with Gunnar Leue, In: www.taz.de, March 24, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dolls over the shop window. What shoud that? at www.prenzlauerberg-nachrichten.de
2. ↑ Real existing gay life in the GDR on www.queer.de
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} GDR style icon: Frank Schäfer: "If you are rich, do you have better sex?" ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Der Tagesspiegel, March 17, 2014 
4. ↑ A dream in strawberry foil at www.filmzentrale.com
5. ^ The other GDR: It really gave us , Die Zeit, October 16, 2014
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Berliner Söhne: "I was just a pubic hair cutter" Spiegel Online , December 5, 2000
7. ^ Website for the film