Biography

February 12, 1971 · Toronto, Canada

Benjamin Klimaschewski

6′ (1.83 m)

[as Contergan (2007) receives the German Television Award, he is listing people he would like to thank and can't think of any more names after a while] Help me out, Katharina [Katharina Wackernagel]!

She [Denise Marko] was our greatest happiness when it came to the movie [Contergan (2007)]. One of the greatest encounters I have had as a person in the last few years. For me, Denise is the star of the movie. This girl is awesome. She is now a teenager and likes to watch nothing more than Verliebt in Berlin (2005).

[on which quality he dislikes most about himself] My impatience.

[after he has said that there is a lot of pressure on people having to function nowadays, he is asked whether he would agree that this is also important in his own job, considering he is wearing a scarf at the height of summer] But on the other hand, I smoke like a chimney! (laughs) Do we actually know how medication works inside the body? We know the impact but what exactly is going on inside the body we often don't know. What certainly changed since the 1960s is how society deals with disabled people. Although only a person concerned themselves can really assess that. A so-called disabled person once told me, "I myself don't feel disabled, it is only society who regards me that way."