'68 icon: Rainer Langhans on his 85th birthday: "I'm already happy"

Rainer Langhans rides his bike. Rainer Langhans plays table tennis. Rainer Langhans meditates. The 1968 veteran has been living with a prostate cancer diagnosis for years – and, in his own words, is preparing for death.

In March, headlines caused alarm: Langhans was dying, it was reported. Langhans meant something different. "I've been thinking about dying for a long time because of the inner path. I'm practicing dying, you could say," he explained. He was doing "very well" with that. He will turn 85 on June 19.

His approach to the illness sounds idiosyncratic. "I was excited rather than shocked" about the cancer diagnosis, he says. Meditation means trying to die every day. Cancer gave him the opportunity to intensify this practice.

He wants to encourage people to accept their illness, says the former communard. He is currently experiencing that "since I received this diagnosis, my life has improved significantly."

He lives with three women in the Munich district of Schwabing in a community sometimes called a "harem," although not in an apartment. "It's a commune, but because our bodies aren't together, we can come together spiritually."

"The women"—as he calls his three partners—have not been particularly concerned about their Rainer so far. They, too, are on this path and support each other. "You only learn to die if you interpret your life positively," says Christa Ritter. She lives with Gisela Getty and Brigitte Streubel in the same house in Schwabing, but each in her own apartment. The women also see themselves as a community. "We inspire each other." They take a relaxed view of the term "harem." It is often misunderstood in a colonialist way, meaning the oppression of women—which is not true, says Ritter.

In the 1960s, Langhans co-founded the legendary Kommune 1 (Commune 1). With their radical social alternative, its members became a public terror. They opposed the Nazi generation, the Shah, and the Vietnam War. Their actions, from the department store fire leaflet to the failed pudding assassination attempt on US Vice President Hubert Humphrey, made headlines. The picture of the naked Communards from behind caused a stir.

Through her relationship with him, model Uschi Obermaier became famous—and an icon. According to Langhans, the relationship broke down due to differing views on sexuality.

The slogan against the Cold War and the Vietnam War, "Make love, not war," was misunderstood. Even in Kommune 1, it was about spiritual connection—"spiritual sex." Truly free love is liberated from sex and the body.

The image of the sexual revolution, however, remained. In 2018, Langhans received an art prize worth the symbolic sum of 1,968 euros for a gilded pubic hair.

Even in his advanced years, Langhans – Grimme Prize winner, author, actor, and filmmaker, and recently occasionally called Apo-Grandpa – remains radical in his lifestyle: a vegetarian diet. Walks. Cycling. A little table tennis . Meditation.

Langhans calls this "humane husbandry." "I deliberately choose to be very poor so that I'm not forced to earn money." His trademark, besides his white mane, is white clothing—because white contains all colors.

In 2011, he participated in RTL's "Jungle Camp." He received a lot of money for it, but donated most of it. He said it was for the commune-like experience; a kind of commune training program.

Langhans occasionally remained alone with his views. Misunderstood or "not of this world"—his life theme is also a trademark.

He was born the first of four children in Oschersleben near Magdeburg. His feeling at the time: "I don't belong here." His parents couldn't handle this and sent him to a strict religious boarding school. Afterward, Langhans took a completely different path: He became a conscript soldier. This enabled him to study. In Berlin, he first studied law and then psychology, but without graduating.

He found like-minded people in the "Argument Club" and the Socialist German Student Union (SDS). The extra-parliamentary opposition (Apo) evolved into Kommune 1.

The motto there was: "The private is political." Thus, Langhans recently advocated the liberal sharing of personal data online. "I give my data voluntarily and receive euros in return," he said on his 80th birthday. He saw the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity for inner reflection and a "meditation session" for society as a whole – just as he did his own illness.

He says he currently has no symptoms. He didn't want surgery or chemotherapy, but is undergoing treatment that palliatively reduces his testosterone to zero. "I'm chemically castrated," he says. "So I'm no longer a man at all, if you will. I'm a human being now, instead of just a man." He sees this as an opportunity, too: It lifts him "above all these lows of libido."

The women are organizing the milestone birthday – instead of coffee and cake, there will be more in-depth conversations, says Christa Ritter. Langhans himself says he has no wishes: "I'm already happy – I don't want anything more."

© dpa-infocom, dpa:250615-930-670919/1