How motherhood changed Anke Engelke’s life

Anke Engelke (58) is one of Germany’s best-known comedy stars. Her career began at the age of 13 as a presenter in the ZDF holiday program. But in addition to her professional success, motherhood now also plays an important role in her life.

In 1996, the now 58-year-old became a mother for the first time with the birth of her daughter Emma (28), who was from Anke’s first marriage to keyboardist Andreas Grimm (62). In the “Deutschland3000” podcast, the comedian explains that this new responsibility brought about a profound change in her life. “You don’t do any more stupid things,” she explains wonderfully openly. Because: “You have responsibility for at least one life.”

Anke Engelke owes her down-to-earth nature to her parents

In the interview, Anke Engelke, who has daughter Emma and sons Lasse (19) and Aaron (15) from her second marriage to musician Claus Fischer (59), emphasizes how important education is in personality development. She explains: “What did you see at home, what do you unconsciously imitate, what do you adopt? What do you think is great and do it because of that? What do you think is crap and don’t do because of that?”

Anke Engelke believes that her own upbringing by her parents also played a key role. Namely, in that she remained down to earth despite her early fame. The fact that her parents weren’t so keen on their child being on TV helped her not to become aloof, she says in the podcast.

Interestingly, despite being a mother at 30 and married, Engelke did not feel “like a woman” for a long time, but rather “like a child”. She says in the podcast: “I’m always about 10 years behind. It always takes me an incredibly long time to get the hang of things.” This delayed development of her self-image meant that she did not do many things like other women her age, such as putting on make-up or carrying handbags. “It took me a long time to […] until I dressed in a way that showed I wanted to make a difference. I always did everything for myself,” she says. And even today, the successful actress doesn’t feel like she’s 58.