Whether as a comedian or actor:With "Sketchup" Diether Krebs poked fun at the hearts of the audience. And as Commissioner "Dieter Herle" he hunted criminals in "Soko 5311". He would have been 75 on August 11, 2022.
by Carina Werner
Whether it's Hallervorden, Hildebrandt, Hüsch or Nuhr:Whoever makes the German television audience laugh is usually called Dieter. This also applies to Diether Krebs. It is not only the "h" in the first name that is remarkable about the actor, comedian and cabaret artist, but also many other things in his career and work.
Theater Oberhausen:First roles in the Ruhr area
Diether Krebs was born in Essen on August 11, 1947, the son of a stationer. Even as a teenager he was passionate about the theater and slipped into ever new roles in school theater groups. He soon wanted more:he dropped out of high school and learned the art of acting from scratch at the renowned Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. He has his first engagement at the theater in Oberhausen. Regarded as "remarkably talented and professional," the young, lanky actor is quickly making a name for himself on the theater scene.
Diether Krebs becomes the "son-in-law of the nation"
Diether Krebs only became known to a larger audience a few years later:After numerous theater and television roles, he played the grumpy husband of his daughter Tetzlaff in the cult series "Ein Herz und Eine Seele" (WDR) in the 70s and thus advanced to the "son-in-law of the Nation". In 1974, at the height of the success of the series, Diether Krebs quits the role because the SPD is pushing for the political leadership to be relaxed. In the years that followed, he shines in numerous film roles, including serious ones, including the 1980 film "Die Judenbuche" based on the novella by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff.
"Rudis Tagesschau" and "Sketchup":The love of the comic
Master of distortion:Diether Krebs 1984 - with buck teeth and wire-rimmed glasses.Although Diether Krebs had already proven his humorous talent several times at this point, his actual career as a comedian only began in the early 1980s with "Rudis Tagesshow". From 1981 he played alongside Rudi Carrell, who praised his young partner as an "internationally renowned sketch player". From 1984 Diether Krebs went his own way. In the "Sketchup" series, long before the comedy wave, he presents pure sketches:Two people joke for two or three minutes towards an effective final punchline. One person is Diether Krebs, the other is initially the actress and singer Beatrice Richter. "The relationship with Diether was the most intense, bangiest, most energetic of my life," she says later. Nevertheless, she left "Sketchup" in 1985. Her successor was the young Iris Berben.
With false buck teeth, glasses as thick as a thumb and glued-on beards, Diether Krebs plays hundreds of grotesquely exaggerated types in his sketches:losers and braggarts, philistines and chauvinists who reveal some regrettable things about life in the late Federal Republic.
Situational comedy peppered with short, dry sentences
Diether Krebs doesn't skimp on regular jokes ("Better mean than pregnant!"), but also leads into the abysses of everyday life, politics and love. For example in that legendary eleven-second sketch in which an elderly couple is sitting in the living room. She purrs voluptuously:"When I looked out the window, it was dawn." He looks up from his newspaper and corrects:"Tomorrow!" Diether Krebs gives up "Sketchup" after two years. Again he sees his freedom endangered by the influence of the political parties.
In 1985 Diether Krebs moved to Hamburg
In 1985, the Ruhrpott actor moved to Hamburg for love:his wife, Bettina Freifrau von Leoprechting-Krebs, signed on as a translator at the Thalia Theater. In Hamburg-Hohenfelde he moves into a villa with his wife and two sons. He plays a significant role in their upbringing:"It's more important to me that my children don't become assholes than that they know how big the area under the parable is," is one of his legendary sentences.
Diether Krebs does not allow himself to be pinned down to the sketch actor. From 1978 to 1986 he played the brash inspector "Dieter Herle" more than a hundred times in the crime series "SOKO 5113". He can also be seen briefly in the "crime scene". In 1990 he started his sketch show "Full next to it". At the beginning of the 1990s, he stormed the German charts with wire-rimmed glasses and a reindeer sweater, mumbling "I'm Martin, no" into the microphone.
90s:no successes
Comedian dream couple:With Beatrice Richter, Diether Krebs made the nation laugh with "Sketchup".In the late 1990s things gradually quieted down around him. Productions such as the comedy show "Der Dicke und der Belgier" (The fat man and the Belgian) are unable to match the old successes. His health is also going downhill. "One and a half bottles of Sambuca, 32 espressos and on a good day three bottles of vodka," as Diether Krebs candidly reveals, does not go unnoticed by him. "There are mornings when I'm always amazed that I look even worse than I feel," he says in a private video recording to his children, which can be seen in the documentary "Dieter mit 'h' Krebs". .
Hard worker to the death
At the end of the 1990s, Diether Krebs became terminally ill with lung cancer. Nonetheless, he continues to work tirelessly. He had his last major role in 1999 in the crook comedy "Bang Boom Bang". On January 5, 2000 he died at the age of 52 in his home in Hamburg. However, he will be buried where he comes from:in the Ruhr area, in Essen, in the East Cemetery there.