Uschi Obermaier could sit back and relax in her freshly renovated farmhouse and enjoy her new life in Portugal. After more than 30 years in California, the native of Munich dared to make a new start in November 2019 in a village near the Algarve coast. Surrounded by fruit and olive trees, without a man but not alone.
‘Lulla’, a German Shepherd/Husky mix, went with them. And recently ‘Struppi’, a Portuguese Podenco, joined them. “It used to be the case, the men ran up to me, now the dogs!” She says with a smile in a video call from the German Press Agency.
She talks enthusiastically about a new heart project that she is tackling at the age of 76 – a documentary about her life. “For the first time this will be a film in which I am fully involved,” emphasizes Obermaier. “We design the project together so that we also have control over it.” She didn’t want to be fooled. “I want it to come from me and not for others to always write about me.”
Also on board is Saskia Middelburg as manager/producer and Olaf Kraemer as author and director. Kraemer has known her since the 90s, she had told him her experiences for months in Los Angeles – for the 2007 biography “High Times: My Wild Life”, which was also released as a feature film in the cinemas.
Wild 1960s
The feature film starring Natalia Avelon was too conservative for many critics. Obermaier agrees. “In the movie ‘Das Wilde Leben’ they left a lot out and they tried to do justice to everyone, but then it doesn’t work, it just gets watered down. My life was much more than sex and the 60s. That was a part , but I also want to show who I really am today.”
Her life made headlines. In the wild 1960s she quit her job as a photo retoucher, toured clubs and was discovered as a model. She fell in love with the Communard Rainer Langhans. In the summer of 1967, a nude photo from the legendary Berlin Kommune 1 went around the world. The Munich native becomes a sex icon, gets involved with drugs and rock stars like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Jimi Hendrix.
One of the big loves was the Hamburg neighborhood great Dieter Bockhorn. They met in 1973 and traveled the world in a converted mobile home. Love came to an abrupt end when Bockhorn Silvester died in a motorcycle accident in Mexico in 1983. At the age of 37, Obermaier had to start a new life.
Private Insights
So there is plenty of documentary material. The still untitled film is to be populated from Obermaier’s private archive and with newly shot material. She has collected a lot, including video and Super 8, also from childhood. “My mom kept everything in the attic, my childhood photos and drawings of me. It’s going to be a real journey through time,” says Obermaier.
And which important companions have their say? Ex-boyfriend Rainer Langhans met her in Munich in November after a long radio silence. “He’s happy to be part of the film. We talked for a long time. Rainer and the community were also an important part of my life and that should also be told.”
She also wanted to talk about relationships that she was otherwise silent about. “This is the life I’ve lived and I want to talk about it, whether everyone likes it or not.” Also about a past great love in California.
And someone like Mick Jagger? Could he join? “I don’t think the Stones will be willing to do that, although…I’m just saying ‘although, period, period, period’,” laughs Obermaier. She doesn’t want to reveal more just yet.
your message
She experienced depths and learned from them. She wants to convey her life knowledge in the documentary. “If you don’t take risks, then nothing interesting will happen. Then you’ll walk in the tracks, like maybe your parents did. There is no full life without risk.
That’s also what the film is about,” says Obermaier. She would also like to give this to younger people and recommend it. “Please believe in your dreams, your ideas, your wishes. Don’t let yourself be scared, just go through with it. You have to think positively and believe in your luck.”
She considers herself very “lucky” to live in Portugal in the midst of beautiful nature and to have found good friends there. Without speaking the language, she took the leap from the USA to a new life as a single woman.
“Of course you want to have great love forever. But I learned that from life – Nothing is forever. I’m happy that I had that and I like to think about it. You don’t experience such passionate love that often. I don’t have that now , I now love my dogs passionately.”
And what else do you enjoy doing? “Eating out well is very important to me. If I’m not having sex, then I need something else that’s delicious,” jokes Obermaier. “And then a whistle,” she adds with a wink.
