Fritz Wepper was very familiar to many people – his face regularly flickered across television screens. He became famous as detective assistant Harry Klein in the cult crime series “Derrick,” and he was able to live out his comedic side in the popular ARD series “For Heaven’s Sake” as the scheming mayor Wolfgang Wöller. The actor, who won many awards, died on Monday at the age of 82, around five months after his brother Elmar. Wepper fell asleep peacefully, his lawyer and good friend Norman Synek told the German Press Agency in Munich. The “Bild” newspaper and the “Bunte” had previously reported.
“With his charisma and exceptional talent, Fritz Wepper has become one of the most popular German actors. We will miss him very much,” said Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens), who paid tribute to the deceased as one of the most successful German actors. Even as a young man, he made a name for himself internationally, for example with the anti-war film “Die Brücke”. “What followed was a decades-long career in which Fritz Wepper repeatedly demonstrated that commercial and artistic success are not mutually exclusive.”
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) was also saddened. “Fritz Wepper, like his brother Elmar, was a Bavarian actor in the very best sense,” he wrote on the platform X (formerly Twitter). “Now he is reunited with his brother Elmar in heaven.” Wepper always remained loyal to his homeland of Munich and Bavaria. The Bavarian Art Minister Markus Blume (CSU) also mourned: “With Fritz Wepper we are losing a great Bavarian actor – and a Munich original. (…) It will always remain part of Bavarian film and television history. We will miss him very much!”.
In December 2023, Wepper (“Derrick”) was taken to a Munich hospital because of blood poisoning. Shortly afterwards, according to Synek, he was still on the mend. Wepper had had to fight for his health for a long time. He had already had heart surgery and had fought with all his might against cancer.
Fritz Wepper entertained German television audiences for decades and won them over with his role in the ZDF series “Derrick” alongside Horst Tappert. He played the mayor of Kaltenthal Wolfgang Wöller, who waged a constant small war with the town’s nuns in the ARD series “For Heaven’s Sake,” for 20 years.
At the end of October, his brother Elmar Wepper died of heart failure at the age of 79. Fritz Wepper got him into acting. Occasionally both of them were in front of the camera together – for example in the comedy “Three Under One Blanket”.