In the "Krone" interview

Max Müller on ageing and police work

The "Krone" met the popular Universal entertainer before his concerts and learned of a touching story.(Bild: Starpix/ Alexander TUMA)

Kasnudeln and Mozart - performed by "Rosenheim Cops" veteran and baritone Max Müller. A somewhat different kind of benefit concert took place yesterday in the Lorely Hall in Vienna, where the popular musician performed twice in aid of the Mobile Palliative Care Team of the Wiener Hilfwerk and sold out the auditorium with his piece "Ja, Prost die Mahlzeit!".

It was a chance encounter, which is why this supposedly unpleasant topic is so close to the Carinthian-born musician's heart: "After many years, when she came back from Australia, we met by chance in Vienna behind the opera house, where we used to go as schoolchildren." He was talking about his former schoolmate, Sigrun Sodia-Feldner.

He continued: "And then we sort of reconnected and she told me what she does, that she is a palliative care doctor. And then, at some point, I said: 'Tell me, how are you doing? And she then told me that palliative care in particular is very often a shunned topic because people are simply insanely afraid of contact and I thought: let's do a benefit concert! Yes, I'm well known, so a few people will probably come and listen to it." And so 600 people did.

Müller even had a picture of the two of them at school saved on his tablet.(Bild: Starpix/ Alexander TUMA)

Desire for more
Müller himself grew up next to a hospital, which is why he came into contact with sick, sometimes terminally ill people at an early age. "As a child, of course, you can't express that, but I felt it. It's a sad subject. But it's actually good. And I'm simply noticing more and more in our society that topics such as illness and death are very, very readily negated. And that's understandable up to a certain age when you're young and you don't want to have so much to do with it, but you have to face it sooner or later."

He personally wants maximum independence in old age - as probably everyone does, he emphasized. If he is not so lucky, he would also like to be looked after by a team such as that of the Vienna relief organizations. But as long as he is still as lively as he is now, he is not even thinking about quitting. "My biggest role models in that respect are Otto Schenk and Fritz Muliar. People who work or have worked right up to the end. It gives me a lot of pleasure and as long as it does, why should I stop?" Not only the entertainer's fans can be happy about this news, the "Krone" also thanks him for the interview and the courage to put palliative work on the agenda!