Entertainment duo and twins Alice and Ellen Kessler died on Monday at the age of 89 via assisted suicide at their home in Gruenwald, Germany.
The Kessler twins, who rose to fame in the 1950s, contacted the German Society for Humane Dying (DGHS) more than a year ago, the organization told CNN.
On Tuesday, German police confirmed to the outlet that “there was a deployment yesterday [at] lunchtime in Gruenwald,” but did not reveal why.
“The decisive factor is likely to have been the desire to die together on a specific date,” DGHS spokesperson Wega Wetzel told CNN, adding that she did not know the exact reasons for each woman.
“Their desire to die was well-considered, long-standing, and free from any psychiatric crisis,” Wetzel asserted.
Last year, during an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the twins were told, “You’ve said in the past that if one of you resorted to euthanasia, the other would too. Is that still the case?”
“Our desire is to go away together, on the same day. The idea that one of us might get it first is very hard to bear,” Alice and Ellen Kessler replied.
The women — who were known for their blonde hair, long legs, and talent for singing and dancing — had also mentioned that they were living “in two mirrored, connecting apartments,” where they “constantly” got requests to return to television, which didn’t appeal to either of them.
“We decided not to do anything anymore, and that’s our choice,” they said. “We constantly get requests to return to TV, but we turn everything down. Nothing appeals to us. We don’t want to be seen anymore.”
“What we could do even just ten years ago, we can’t do anymore, so why show up when we no longer have the ability to be as strong and talented as we once were? No, we don’t want to,” the twins continued.
“One has to decide when one’s job is done, and we’ve decided,” the Kessler sisters, who had also found fame in Italy, making history as the first showgirls to appear on Italian television, added.
After being asked if they still danced together, the twins answered, “No,” adding, “At 88, our energy diminishes, and so, rather than doing things less well, it’s better not to do them at all.”
Alice and Ellen Kessler reportedly asked for their ashes to be interred in the same urn, alongside their mother Elsa and dog Yello.
The twins, born on August 20, 1936 in Nerchau, Gau Saxony, Nazi Germany, participated in classical ballet school as children, and later fled East Germany in 1952 to embark on a joint dance career.
They went on to represent Germany at the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest, and appeared several times on The Ed Sullivan Show, as well as in films.
The Kessler sisters also posed nude for Italy’s 1976 edition of Playboy — which reportedly sold out in three hours — and had been featured on the cover of Life magazine.
Euthanasia is legal in a number of European countries, where mental illness is increasingly becoming a reason given for going through with it.
In the Netherlands, for example, there were only two assisted suicide cases involving psychiatric suffering in 2010, with the figure jumping to 138 by 2023, according to a report by the Guardian.
Last year, 29-year-old Dutch woman Zoraya ter Beek — who was diagnosed with chronic depression, anxiety, trauma, and unspecified personality disorder — was granted euthanasia approval on the grounds of unbearable mental suffering after she felt her therapy did not go well.
Under Dutch law, one is eligible for assisted dying if they are experiencing “unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement.” The individual must also be fully informed and competent to make the decision.
In Germany — where the Kessler twins also ended their lives through a third party — euthanasia is allowed as long as the individual is not subject to external influences.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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