Alice and Ellen Kessler, the German pop duo famous in Europe during the 1960s, have died together at the age of 89. The identical twins chose a joint assisted death at their home in Grünwald, near Munich, on Monday, according to Wega Wetzel, a spokesperson for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Humanes Sterben (DGHS), a Berlin-based assisted dying association.
In Germany, active euthanasia is banned, but the constitution allows individuals the right to a self-determined death, including the freedom to take one's own life with voluntary assistance. The sisters administered life-ending drugs in the presence of a physician and lawyer, who then called the police. Wetzel stated that the decision was made over a long period and was well thought through, with no mental health issues involved.
Born in 1936 in Nerchau, the sisters began as child ballet dancers with the Leipzig Opera. Their career took off at age 16 after their family fled East Germany for Düsseldorf. They represented West Germany in the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing eighth. They performed at The Lido in Paris, where they met Elvis Presley in 1959, and later moved to Italy in 1961, where they became icons of talent and elegance, known as “the legs of the nation.”
The Kesslers also found success in the US, performing with Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire. They lived together in Rome until 1986, then returned to Germany. Both had romantic relationships but made a pact never to marry, influenced by their mother's unhappy marriage. In an interview last year, they expressed their wish to leave together, saying the idea of one going first was difficult to bear.
