(LifeSiteNews) — The famous German Kessler twins have killed themselves through assisted suicide.
According to German media outlets, Alice and Ellen Kessler, who rose to fame in the 1950s and 1960s as an entertainment duo, have died at the age of 89 by joint assisted suicide in Grünwald, Germany.
The twins contacted and joined the advocacy organization, the German Society for Humane Dying (DGHS), more than a year ago, apparently planning their suicide already.
DGHS spokesperson Wega Wetzel said, “The decisive factor is likely to have been the desire to die together on a specific date.”
“Their desire to die was well-considered, long-standing, and free from any psychiatric crisis,” she added.
Ellen Kessler told German newspaper Bild that the twins wanted to have their ashes interred in the same urn alongside their mother and their dog.
So-called “assisted dying” has been legal in Germany under certain conditions since the constitutional court ruled in 2020 that individuals have the right to end their life and seek help from third parties if they wish to do so.
With their talent in singing and dancing and their blonde, coiffed hair, the twins embodied the showgirl aesthetic of the 1950s and ’60s. They represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1959 and appeared several times on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Red Skelton Hour. They were featured on the cover of Life magazine and were close to the biggest stars of show business at the time, including Fred Astaire, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Rock Hudson, and Sammy Davis Jr.
The pair were also very famous in Italy, where they became known as pioneers of indecency, being the first showgirls to show their legs on screen, and later posing nude for photos in the Italian edition of Playboy in 1976.
Mathias von Gersdorff, the head of the German wing of the Catholic organization TFP (Tradition, Family, Property), wrote on X: “The hype surrounding the death of the Kessler sisters is a PR campaign to promote acceptance of euthanasia.”
