Alice and Ellen Kessler, the German twin sisters famous in the 1950s and 60s for their singing and dancing talents, have died after choosing a joint assisted death.
According to the German Society for Humane Dying, the Kessler sisters died on Monday at the age of 89.
“They had been considering this option for some time. They had been members of the organisation for over a year. A lawyer and a doctor conducted preliminary discussions with them,” the organisation said in an English-language statement.
“People who choose this option in Germany must be absolutely clear-headed, meaning free and responsible. The decision must be thoughtful and consistent, meaning made over a long period of time and not impulsive,” the organisation added.
Assisted dying was made legal in Germany after it was ruled in 2020 that an individual has a right to end their life and seek help from a third party as long as the decision is made freely and without pressure.
According to Wega Wetzel, a spokesperson for Deutsche Gesellschaft für Humanes Sterben (DGHS), a Berlin-based assisted dying association, the Kessler sisters chose to have the joint assisted death at their home in Grünwald, close to Munich.
Wetzel said the twins administered life-ending drugs in the presence of a physician and lawyer, who then called the police to check the situation.
Last year, the sisters said in an interview their wish was to die on the same day, adding that “the idea that one of the two will go first is very difficult to bear”.
They also reportedly wished for their ashes to be placed in the same urn as their late mother and dog.
Born in 1936 in Nazi Germany, the Kessler sisters first began ballet dancing with the Leipzig Opera, before their singing and dancing career took off from age 16. Around this time, their family fled East Germany for Düsseldorf.
The sisters performed for West Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1959, where they finished in eighth place.
Moving to Italy in the 1960s their fame grew, where the male-dominated press dubbed them “the legs of the nation”.
And yet, the sisters became icons of female independence, as they told Italy’s Corriere della Sera: “We had a clear idea right from the start, ever since we were girls: we had to be independent. We didn’t want to depend on a man in any way.”
From the age of 15, the Kessler sisters said they started earning their own living, becoming dependent only on each other.
In several interviews, they spoke of a pact they both made to never get married, noting that this decision was influenced by their mother’s unhappy marriage due to domestic violence.
The height of their fame came in postwar Germany and Italy, but the sisters also had fans in the US, making their American television debut on the CBS variety show “The Red Skelton Hour”. They also performed on CBS’ “The Ed Sullivan Show” and appeared on the cover of Life magazine.
The twins were given honorary awards from the German and Italian governments for their contributions to the entertainment industry, including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1987.
In the 80’s, the sisters moved back to Germany, settling in their home near Munich and never married.