Röbi Rapp

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Robert "Röbi" Rapp (born May 27, 1930 in Zurich ; † August 26, 2018 there ) was a Swiss gay activist , actor and travesty artist.

life and work

Rapp was the son of one of the Württemberg een coming goldsmith and Strasbourg erin. He grew up in Zurich with his sister Hedy, who was seven years older than him. Since both children were considered German citizens under Swiss law, Rapp's request for Swiss citizenship was rejected twice. Rapp only received this on May 27, 2010.

Rapp appeared as an eight-year-old child actor in the Schauspielhaus Zurich and until 1945 further appearances followed, including at this theater.

Rapp's father died when he was seven years old. When Paul Ilg's book Das Menschlein Matthias was filmed in 1941, he was given the title role. In the film he played a boy who grew up without a father. The other main actors were Sigfrit Steiner , Leopold Biberti , Hermann Gallinger , Petra Marin, Hans Fehrmann, Waldburga Gmühr, Ditta Oesch, Marga Galli and Edwige Elisabeth. Directed by Edmund Heuberger . The editor was Chiel Weissmann from Emelka-Film.

Since Rapp did not have the money to train as an actor, he completed an apprenticeship as a hairdresser after the Second World War and in his spare time appeared on various stages as a female singer and dancer. After his apprenticeship, he worked for a few years as a ladies' hairdresser and in 1959 switched to Jonny Fahrny's hairdressing college. As Schwarzkopf's representative , Rapp traveled to Lebanon and Syria in 1964 and, on his return, opened a hairdressing salon in Zurich. For health reasons, Rapp had to give up his business in 1970. After retraining, Rapp worked as a documentalist for the Swiss Reinsurance Company until he retired in 1990.

Rapp met his partner Ernst Ostertag in 1956 during his travesty appearances in the Neumarkt Theater . Your activism in the Zurich gay movement was of crucial importance for the equality of homosexual people in Switzerland. They were the first gay couple to have their partnership registered in the Canton of Zurich on July 1, 2003 . The multi-award-winning movie Der Kreis from 2014 tells the couple's life and love story.

Rapp and his partner regularly attended the sermons of the Reformed pastor and religion teacher Erwin Sutz (1906–1987), who was under the influence of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer . When he was blackmailed for his homosexuality in 1969 and forced to resign by his church superiors, Ostertag in 1971 and Rapp resigned from the Evangelical Reformed Church in 1986 out of consideration for his mother, who was still alive.

Rapp and Ostertag found their new spiritual-religious home first in Zen , later in the Tibetan Karman Kagyu School. When they spoke the triple refuge formula with Akong Rinpoche in 1994 , Rapp was given the name Karma Sherab and Ostertag the name Karma Jinpa. From 1990 onwards they worked as volunteers for the Swiss relief organization “Rokpa”.

Röbi Rapp passed away in August 2018 after a long illness with the help of the suicide organization Exit . His ashes were scattered on Lake Zurich at his request . Part of his estate is kept in the gay archive.

literature

  • Barbara Bosshard: Hidden love. The story of Röbi and Ernst. Wörterseh Verlag 2012, ISBN 978-3-03763-027-3
  • Ernst Ostertag, Röbi Rapp: It's about love. Gays in Switzerland and their history (documentation). Association of Gay Archives Switzerland 2009

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Röbi Rapp on schwulengeschichte.ch, accessed on June 15, 2020.
  2. ↑ Movie plot. Schweizer Film = Film Suisse: official organ of Switzerland, accessed on June 15, 2020 .
  3. ↑ P. 18-19 The little human Matthias. In: Schweizer Film = Film Suisse: official body of Switzerland. Emelka-Film, Zurich, accessed on June 15, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Ernst Ostertag on schwulengeschichte.ch, accessed on June 15, 2020.
  5. ↑ Röbi Rapp and Buddhism on schwulengeschichte.ch, accessed on June 15, 2020
  6. ↑ It's about love on liebesexundsoweiter.ch, accessed on June 15, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Rapp, Röbi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rapp, Robert (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss gay activist, actor and travesty artist
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH August 26, 2018
Place of death Zurich