Who will inherit their fortune? Kessler twins dead - will changed again
The Kessler twins Alice and Ellen at the "Die Liebe Geld" theater premiere in Munich in March 2022. The show legends were 89 years old.
Image: IMAGO/APress
Alice and Ellen Kessler were born on August 20, 1936 in Nerchau, Saxony.
Image: imago stock&people
1965: The Kessler twins on August 2, 1965 in London. The entertainers were known for their singing, dancing and acting in Germany and Italy in the 1950s and 1960s. They were known as the "Kessler twins".
Image: IMAGO/United Archives Keystone
1957: "The Count of Luxembourg" with the Kessler twins and Gerhard Riedmann as the Count of Luxembourg. The twins played the dancers Fritzi and Franzi.
Image: imago images / United Archives
Alice and Ellen Kessler in a show costume. The picture was taken in 1959.
Image: imago images / United Archives
"Lieben Sie Show" was a TV format from ARD from 1962.
Image: IMAGO/United Archives
With TV legend Rudi Carrell in the format "Die verflixte 7". The show with Carrell ran from 1965 to 1973.
Image: imago images/United Archives
Alice (left) and Ellen Kessler with presenter Frank Elstner at the press event for the TV show "Deutschland spielt auf - zum 50. Geburtstag der ARD-Fernsehlotterie" in 2006.
The Kessler twins Alice and Ellen at the "Die Liebe Geld" theater premiere in Munich in March 2022. The show legends were 89 years old.
Image: IMAGO/APress
Alice and Ellen Kessler were born on August 20, 1936 in Nerchau, Saxony.
Image: imago stock&people
1965: The Kessler twins on August 2, 1965 in London. The entertainers were known for their singing, dancing and acting in Germany and Italy in the 1950s and 1960s. They were known as the "Kessler twins".
Image: IMAGO/United Archives Keystone
1957: "The Count of Luxembourg" with the Kessler twins and Gerhard Riedmann as the Count of Luxembourg. The twins played the dancers Fritzi and Franzi.
Image: imago images / United Archives
Alice and Ellen Kessler in a show costume. The picture was taken in 1959.
Image: imago images / United Archives
"Lieben Sie Show" was a TV format from ARD from 1962.
Image: IMAGO/United Archives
With TV legend Rudi Carrell in the format "Die verflixte 7". The show with Carrell ran from 1965 to 1973.
Image: imago images/United Archives
Alice (left) and Ellen Kessler with presenter Frank Elstner at the press event for the TV show "Deutschland spielt auf - zum 50. Geburtstag der ARD-Fernsehlotterie" in 2006.
The Kessler twins Alice and Ellen have died together in Munich at the age of 89 - in accordance with the show icons' wishes. They changed their will two years ago. Who will now inherit their fortune?
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The Kessler twins Alice and Ellen have died in Munich at the age of 89.
- The two internationally renowned entertainers were inseparable throughout their lives and had made arrangements for their joint death and burial in their wills.
- Their careers took them from the children's ballet of the Leipzig Opera via Düsseldorf to the Paris Lido, where they made their international breakthrough in 1955.
- The twins became Europe-wide show stars, performed with Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte and Fred Astaire and represented Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1959.
- It has now been revealed that they changed their will two years ago. Who will now inherit their fortune?
The legendary Kessler twins are dead. Alice and Ellen Kessler died together near Munich at the age of 89. The pair shaped the German entertainment scene for decades and were considered icons of the show business.
It was only in the fall of 2023 that the sisters adjusted their wills once again and rearranged their inheritance.
In spring 2024, Ellen Kessler said in an interview with the Bild newspaper: "My sister and I discussed that not just one person should have something, but several."
Now it's clear what they meant by that.
Ellen Kessler: "We wanted to divide our inheritance more fairly, not lump everything together"
The Kessler twins, who were beaming at their last appearance just a few weeks ago, remained unmarried all their lives and had no children.
Originally, their entire fortune was to go to Doctors Without Borders. But two years ago, Alice and Ellen Kessler changed their plans. "We wanted to divide our inheritance more fairly and not lump everything together," explained Ellen Kessler at the time.
The CBM Mission for the Blind, UNICEF, the Paul Klinger Künstlersozialwerk and the German Patient Protection Foundation will now also benefit from her estate.
The amount of the Kessler twins' inheritance remains unclear. However, Ellen Kessler once said: "We earned very well, never threw our money down the drain and invested it well." They still had "a bit on the edge".
Kessler twins: "United in death. That's how we'd like it"
Most recently, the Kessler twins had withdrawn from the public eye and lived in Grünwald in the south of Munich. "We won't live that much longer," Ellen once said. Just a few months after their 89th birthday, the famous sisters died together in their home.
Their career began in 1955: Alice and Ellen Kessler first appeared together in front of the camera in the comedy "Solang' es hübsche Mädchen gibt". Numerous film and TV appearances followed - both nationally and internationally.
The two have been inseparable all their lives. At the beginning of the year, they declared in an interview with "Bild" that they wanted to stay together even after death: "United in death. That's how we would like it. And that's what we've said in our will."
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