interview February 1997

(translated, for better or worse, from German)

 

His daughters Angelica and Celeste are his all and everything. And for Swiss TV star Oliver Tobias it would be absolute misery without them. "Wherever I go, I take time for them."

Would you say of yourself that you are good humans?
As humans with heart I would call myself.

Would you accept a homeless person?
Yes, surely.

Hide or harbor a rejected asylum-seeker?
No, I have to do unfortunately otherwise already too much.

Once per week as a volunteer chauffeur drive around a handicapped one?
Yes, if I found the time in addition.

How would you react, if your daughters or otherwise a close relative liked to marry humans with another faith and from another culture?
This is really my daughters' choice. On it they must decide.

Is cash for you how important?
Cash is necessary, in order to be able to live.

How much do you donate for charitable organizations?
I do not have enough cash. I carry however work out for charitable purposes, by helping that cash income, for example with free appearances.

Would you make yourselves available for an unpaid performance in a crisis area?
If I found the time. But I have to do enough already in such a way with crises.

Do you believe that cash influenced your character?
Show me a character that cash has hardly influenced, at the most basic life-style.

Did you make ever something bad, which you repent today?
Actually no. If I think back, I can recall nothing which I would have to repent.

Did you do times a wrong to someone?
Consciously anyhow no.

What would you do in no case, also not for much cash?
I would never do something senseless, also not, if for it so much cash were offered to me.

Would you hesitate to leap into a cold lake in order to save a drowning child?
Determined, without doubt.

Did you ever strike a child?
Strike a child? For God's sake! No, never I could do that!

Which principle would you like to pass on to a child?
That it endeavors itself to think openly.

What do you believe?
In God.

What is holy for you?
I am religious. God, the creation, the earth are holy for me.

Does the term sin have a meaning for you?
Certainly. There are many sins. Striking children is for example a large one.

Can you love also your enemies?
I think so. Anyhow I am not capable of forgetting or dismissing them.

Can you sleep well, if you committed a meanness?
I do not commit meanness.

Do you believe that you succeeded to give to your life a special sense?
Yes, because I always strove to be a giver and not a taker.

Do you think that also animals have a soul?
That depends.

And you have never a bad conscience to eat meat?
If I know that animals had to suffer, I am also ready to do without meat.

Did you ever kill an animal?
In former times I hunted. But since I came to the realization that I am not a killer, I thereby stopped.

Can you conceive yourself ever in prison?
I would rather not.

If nevertheless the case were, how you would spend your time in the cell?
With writing, reading and meditation, in order to improve myself.

What makes you lose self-control?
That does not occur with me. That may have been perhaps in former times the case. If one drinks too much, that can occur. Today I am too old, in order to lose self-control.

Are you for the death penalty?
No. It’s too cruel, if someone is condemned to death and must wait for it one year or even many years until the punishment is carried out.

What would a reason be for killing for you?
If someone would bring my children or my wife in mortal danger.

Whom would kill you, if you got a license for killing?
I do not know. In the most extreme exceptional case, in the war, for self-defense I would possibly kill someone.

Are you an organ donor?
No, not yet. But I'm considering contacting one of these organizations.

Did you make an aids test?
I am core healthy.

Did you ever think of suicide?
No, and I can imagine also no reason to kill me.

Did you make your will?
Yes.

Who should speak in no case at your funeral?
Richard Nixon.

Do you take enough time for your children, your family?
So much I can, even if it is difficult sometimes. My children are mine all and everything.

Do you have a good relation to your parents?
A very good. They supported me, and I am lucky always that they still live.

Do you believe that you could become unemployed?
As a freelancer I know these risks, and I had already such concerns. But God has blessed me in my career again and again.

What would the absolute disaster for you be?
If to my children bad fortune came.

The absolute luck?
I have that already, my life.

With which famous woman would you like to spend once one night?
I do not need that. My wife does not have to be famous.

Would you pay for Sex? Did you ever pay for it?
One pays in life for everything, if with cash or without.

In the end: Would you like to confess somewhat, which oppresses you already for a long time?
That the culture suffers at present much. Personally nothing actually oppresses me. I try to solve my problems daily before the sun sets, and can always well fall asleep.

Date of birth: 6. August 1947.

Civil status: divorced, but never alone.

Denomination: Protestant.

Last church attendance: I go more frequently into the churches, in all countries, where I am, also into buddhist Temple, and I pray daily.

Astrological sign: Lion, and I believe somehow in it, Astrology is a part of life.

Favourite book: I read much. My last book is " the Medicus ", a historical novel from the 11. Century, of Noah Gordon.

Favourite cities: London, Rome and Istanbul.

Favourite music: an enormous pallet, from classical period to Rock'n'Roll.

Favourite animal: the horse, I am a passionate rider.

Most beautiful journey: Journeys are always beautiful.

Largest problem: to have control over my bookkeeping to know how I financially am.

Model: I do not have many models, humanly and vocationally.

Last good act: I helped my mother after an accident during her recovery.

What are your projects for the next months?
I prepare for my next work, a film project, which I do not want to betray yet.