"My father was violent" Jürgen Vogel talks about his traumatic childhood

Bruno Bötschi

2.2.2025

"For years I thought I was born into the wrong family" Jürgen Vogel.
"For years I thought I was born into the wrong family" Jürgen Vogel.
Image: Marcus Brandt/dpa

Jürgen Vogel talks about his difficult youth and growing up in the red light district in a podcast. The actor's childhood was characterized by great disappointments, but also by constant violence.

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  • Jürgen Vogel talks about his difficult family circumstances in the podcast "Alles anders".
  • The 56-year-old actor's childhood was characterized by disappointments.
  • According to Vogel, his father was "definitely violent", especially when alcohol was involved.

"For years, I thought I was born into the wrong family." In the podcast "Alles anders", actor Jürgen Vogel talks about his complicated childhood.

The now 56-year-old only realized "much later" that he grew up in Hamburg's red-light district. However, he felt the effects of the toxic behavior within his family at a young age.

"We were often out on the Reeperbahn, there was always a lot of alcohol and Christmas was a nightmare." This is why he still can't really celebrate Christmas to this day, says Vogel in an interview with podcaster Jana Simon, "because the thing we children looked forward to the most always ended in a huge disaster".

Vogel's childhood was characterized by "constant violence"

Jürgen Vogel's childhood was characterized by many disappointments and constant violence. His father was "definitely violent", especially when alcohol was involved. And that was very often the case.

In his childhood, there was an "underlying mood of fear and the trauma of violence" and scenes took place "that you shouldn't experience as a child".

Years later, he was able to discuss everything with his mother and forgive her. He couldn't do that with his father. He died during the time when Vogel had no contact with his parents for almost ten years.

Jürgen Vogel looked for a way out himself

The situation at home was bad, but Jürgen Vogel didn't want to let it drag him down completely. As a teenager, he was already looking for a way out.

After his parents separated, he lived with a social worker for the majority of two years at the age of 13.

During this time, he completed his secondary school certificate and took up martial arts. At the age of 15, Vogel moved to Munich and later on to Berlin, where he eked out a living with odd jobs.

Jürgen Vogel has not lost his sense of humor

Jürgen Vogel has not lost his sense of humor over the years. However, he was only able to speak publicly about the terrible experiences of his childhood after the death of his mother five years ago.

After separating from his father, his mother had built up "a new reality", which he did not want to take away from her before her death. "I wouldn't have wanted to do that to her when she was alive."

Jürgen Vogel had his breakthrough as an actor in 1992 as dishwasher Ingo in Sönke Wortmann's comedy "Kleine Haie".

For him, acting was "an escape, a way to get out of this world". But he would have preferred to become a dancer: "But I just had bow legs, which doesn't quite work in tights."


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