They have been a model couple for decades. But that’s over now: the actress Maria Furtwängler, not least known from “Tatort”, and publisher Hubert Burda go their separate ways. But of course they should remain “friends and family members”.
Actress Maria Furtwängler and publisher Hubert Burda have announced their separation after more than 30 years of marriage. A spokeswoman for Furtwängler officially confirmed the love off.
In a statement on behalf of the spouses, it says: “Maria Furtwängler and Hubert Burda have been going their separate ways for some time. They are friendly and familiar to each other, also in view of the two children they have together, and will continue to do so in the future.”
Beyond that, the couple did not release any further details on the matter. The two spouses have a daughter and a son together: 30-year-old Elisabeth Furtwängler is a musician, her brother Jacob Burda, who is two years older, works as a digital entrepreneur.
The actress, who comes from a well-known family of artists, and the successful media entrepreneur have been among Germany’s best-known married couples since their marriage in 1991. Nevertheless, the two have managed to keep their family life largely out of the public eye over the years.
But there is a remarkable interview that Furtwangler conducted in 2012 with “Spiegel”. In it she said that she herself had also become a self-confident woman through her marriage to the multimillionaire: “I have an extremely strong and self-confident man in whose shadow you easily become the environment, the satellite. It sounds incredibly cliché now, but this may have made it all the more necessary to find myself and my own world.”
For Hubert Burda, marriage to the 55-year-old was the second marriage. When the couple celebrated their wedding in 1991, Furtwangler was 25 and the now 82-year-old publisher was a quarter of a century older. The two had known each other for a few years, the first child was already born, the second on the way.
The award-winning Maria Furtwängler, great-niece of the famous conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, had been in front of the camera since she was a little girl and had her big breakthrough in 1987 with the ARD early evening series “The Happy Family”. Her prime role, however, is the “Tatort” television commissioner Charlotte Lindholm. With around 30 cases in 20 years, Maria Furtwängler is always a quota guarantor. She has also made a name for herself as a television producer. In addition to her TV life, she is also a doctor.
In public, Maria Furtwängler has long campaigned for women’s rights. In 2016 she founded the MaLisa Foundation with her daughter Elisabeth. This is committed at international level to combating violence against women and girls. In Germany, the foundation also campaigns for social diversity and overcoming restrictive role models. Again and again, MaLisa initiatives address grievances, such as the image of women in the media.
The Burda media group, in turn, makes billions in sales every year. Her portfolio includes the magazine “Focus”, the people magazine “Bunte”, the fashion magazine “Burda Style” and the fashion magazine “Elle”. The media company is 100 percent family-owned, Hubert Burda is the owner together with his children: Jacob Burda and Elisabeth Furtwängler have each held 37.5 percent of the group holding company since 2017.
(This article was first published on Monday, August 15, 2022.)
