Inka Bause: "There were times when I was ashamed of 'Bauer sucht Frau'"
Presenter Inka Bause reveals in the podcast "Muckefuck & Fernsehfunk" why she was on the verge of dropping "Bauer sucht Frau" on RTL, how she was badly humiliated by Dieter Thomas Heck as an East German after reunification and why she wants to end her TV career in 2028.
Two days after her 55th birthday, "Bauer sucht Frau" presenter Inka Bause will be talking more openly than ever about her life from November 23. On "Muckefuck & Fernsehfunk", the new podcast from program guide SUPER TV (available free of charge on all popular streaming platforms), she chats with Jürgen Karney and Stefanie Heidrich about her journey from her beginnings as a 15-year-old singer in the GDR to hosting the successful matchmaking show "Bauer sucht Frau".
Her father, the great hit composer Arndt Bause, didn't want his daughter to become a singer: "He thought it was terrible because he knew what would happen. No more female singers came to him and wanted songs. Everyone thought that I would get the good songs anyway as his daughter and Helga Hahnemann as his best friend." But with a trick in the studio and the help of colleagues like the 'Puhdys', she was able to convince her father.
Shortly after reunification, she had a completely different experience. Backstage at a TV show, the great Dieter Thomas Heck shouted across the table during a meal: "Well Inka, what's it like to eat your fill?" Bause, who was not one to mince her words, corrected him: "We didn't starve in the GDR! "I didn't watch any of his shows for two years afterwards. Nothing got past Dieter Thomas Heck back then."
Despite such scenes, she continued undeterred on her way to the million-dollar success of "Bauer sucht Frau". Today she is very happy with the matchmaking show, but at first she wanted to give up: "At some point I only saw animals being inseminated. That was a level - I was ashamed." She also made this clear to those responsible at RTL - with success.
The format celebrates its 20th birthday next year. How much longer does she want to do it? Until 2028, at which point she has at least decided to think about saying goodbye: "I know some colleagues who can't really stop and I'm worried that when I'm 60 I'll think: I've done really well - we can do another ten years."