The Kessler twins, who were best known for their singing and dancing talents in the ’50s and ’60s, have d!ed by joint assisted suicide.
Alice and Ellen Kessler died at age 89 at their home in Grünwald, near Munich, Germany, on Monday.
The sisters “no longer wanted to live” and “they had chosen to end their lives together,” as reported by the German newspaper Bild.
According to CNN, Alice and Ellen were assisted by advocacy organization the German Society for Humane Dying (DGHS). The DGHS provides people with access to lawyers, doctors and other tools.
The organization told CNN that the twins contacted the DGHS over a year ago and became members.
“The decisive factor is likely to have been the desire to die together on a specific date,” DGHS spokesperson Wega Wetzel told CNN. However, Wetzel noted that she wasn’t aware of why each woman chose this method.
“Their desire to die was well-considered, long-standing and free from any psychiatric crisis,” she added.
In an interview last year with Italy’s Corriere della Sera, the identical sisters said their wish was “to leave together, on the same day … The idea that one of the two will go first is very difficult to bear.”
“They had been considering this option for some time. They had been members of the organization for over a year. A lawyer and a doctor conducted preliminary discussions with them,” the organization said in a statement, via NBC News. “People who choose this option in Germany must be absolutely clear-headed, meaning free and responsible. The decision must be thoughtful and consistent, meaning made over a long period of time and not impulsive.”
On Tuesday, local police confirmed to CNN that “there was a deployment yesterday lunchtime in Gruenwald” to their residence. The possibility of foul play was ruled out.
In April 2024, Alice and Ellen reportedly told Bild that they wanted their ashes to be buried in the same urn. They will reportedly be buried alongside their mother, Elsa, and dog Yello.
The siblings were born in Nazi Germany, and their family fled East Germany for West Germany in 1952.
The two women moved to Italy in the ’60s and posed on the cover of the Italian edition of Playboy. They acted in various European film productions throughout the decade and briefly appeared in the Hollywood biblical epic “Sodom and Gomorrah.”
The sisters ultimately moved back to Germany in the ’80s, settling in a home near Munich. They never married.
