Times Magazin –
Interview von Regine Wosnitza
teilweise erschienen am 23.08 2005


Interview with
Marie Theres Kroetz Relin, 39, daughter of German actress Maria Schell.
Kroetz Relin was born June 20, 1966 in Munich.

Grew up mostly with her grandmother, was no good at school and left aged 16
without any school certificate. Went to Paris and trained as an actor and in
pantomime. At the age of 17 she did her first film in England, "Secret
Places" (directed by Zelda Barron) and received the Taormina prize as best
actress. Her acting career unfolded.

In 1987 she met and fell in love with dramatist, director and actor Franz
Xaver Kroetz. Daughter Josephine Alma Maria was born October 25, 1988. In
1990 Kroetz Relin did her last film for 12 years. In February 92 she had her
second daughter Magdalena Anna Marie. On March 5, 1992 she got married to
Xaver Kroetz. As long as the children were small she followed her husband
around the world with them. In 1994 she was diagnosed thyroid hyperfunction.
On May 31, 1995 their son Ferdinand Franz Valentin was born. Kroetz Relin
was 29 and a three-time mother.

At Christmas 1995, Magdalena and Ferdinand developed severe asthma and
pneumonia and their doctor advised them to go abroad. They went to Tenerife,
originally for the winter months but then stayed for good.

"As a housewife I was a multi-talent," Kroetz Relin says. "I was rich in
experience, spoke five languages, had a highly creative potential but no
outlet. I slowly started to suffer from isolation at the stove." She says
she increasingly pondered on the role of the housewife in society, about
them not being acknowledged. She could not follow her husband around because
her children had started school. She concentrated on being a single mother
with a husband.

July 19, 2002, aged 36, Kroetz Relin contracted a pulmonary embolism and
collapsed. "From this day my life took a 180 degree turn," she says. "I
realized that I had given up my creativity, that in order to serve my family
I had given up my own life. Although I loved my family, I realized that my
own mind was captured in a prison. There was a door but I had always tried
to open it to the outside. All I had to do was to open it to the inside. The
crisis turned me from the loving wife backing her husband in every possible
way to a fighter."

It happened that before she started a radioactive therapy to treat her
thyroid hyperfunction in 2002, she went into a computer shop in the little
Bavarian town of Altenmark. The visit was to change her life even more. She
did not know the shop-owner Anja Quattlender but mentioned her thoughts on
the necessity of a housewife revolution. Quattlender immediately reserved
that name for a homepage: www.hausfrauenrevolution.com

Kroetz Relin started learning all about computers and found her next acting
role via the Internet. In autumn 2002 she was back in front of the camera
for the TV-crime story "Denninger" (director Mathias Tiefenbacher). She
trained her husband to be a houseman and went on a
"Filmset-sightseeing-vacation". In connection with the film she was
interviewed a lot but instead of talking about the "return of the actress"
she talked about "housewife revolution". The echo was immense.

Quattlender and herself acted at once. Within a week, they designed the
homepage and on November 21, 2002 it went online containing not more than an
introduction by Kroetz Relin and a short story by her husband. On the
opening day they had 2.700 visits. Now, 2.5 years later, they have 1.500
pages with texts by about 400 authors. They have had 4.5 million visitors on
the page that deals with topics like women, men, children, culture,
politics, chat and far more.

Well-reputed German publishing house Piper approached her and in October
2004 published "If pigs could fly - The House-Wife Revolution", a
compilation of texts on the topic by 33 authors, well known and unknown.

"All I wanted to do in the beginning was to create an outlet for myself with
housefrauenrevolution.com," Kroetz Relin says. "I thought that a few
like-minded women might join me on the Internet. I never dreamed of so many
reactions. I did not know that there were so many women who felt the need to
communicate amongst themselves."

Many of the women who write are also facing their midlife crisis. "They have
given up their jobs for their families and suddenly they are facing a big
dark hole and if they are unlucky their husbands leave them for a younger
one," Kroetz Relin says. "I propagate that we have to roll up our sleeves
and achieve what we want ourselves."

Four months ago Maria Schell died (April 27, 2005) and during her mother's
funeral Kroetz-Relin realized something else. "My mother has moved a lot
with her movies and she has also fought a lot," Kroetz Relin says. "My
grandmother was a fighter as well. I realized that in our row I am the next
mother who is going to die. I am determined to continue the fight for the
cause of women, all my life and worldwide."