{"id":46349,"date":"2023-05-08T09:46:38","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T07:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.steinmuehle.de\/blog\/2023\/05\/08\/actor-and-ambassador-david-bennent-took-on-a-dual-role\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T17:36:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T15:36:42","slug":"actor-and-ambassador-david-bennent-took-on-a-dual-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/blog\/2023\/05\/08\/actor-and-ambassador-david-bennent-took-on-a-dual-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor and Ambassador: David Bennent took on a dual role"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Older folks will remember”…a clich\u00e9 that\u2019s hard to avoid at this point: At the age of twelve, David Bennent\u2014born in 1966 and the son of a Swiss acting family\u2014played Oskar Matzerath in the film adaptation of G\u00fcnter Grass\u2019s *The Tin Drum*. A successful film that filled movie theaters starting in 1979 and was known for its ideal cast under director Volker Schl\u00f6ndorff. In that film, Bennent, in his childlike role, protested against the adult world of the late 1920s in Danzig. Today, Bennent is an ambassador for the international children\u2019s aid organization \u201cterre des hommes\u201d; in that capacity, he came to Marburg for a reading\u2014and then to the Steinm\u00fchle. <\/p>\n

An experienced actor, socially conscious and attuned to the perspectives of young people\u2014the DS 11 class taught by Steinm\u00fchlen teacher Ines Vielhaben could hardly have asked for a better instructor for a short workshop. The arrangement with the prominent guest came about through the art and DS teacher\u2019s connection to Gisela Glatzl, one of the active members of terre des hommes Marburg. \u201cWe\u2019d prefer it if no one were watching,\u201d Bennent explained, expressing his wish to have no observers in the room during the workshop. Afterward, the wonderful actor\u2014who, though only 1.55 meters tall\u2014answered all kinds of questions. <\/p>\n

Bennent personally has very little experience with school. \u201cMy parents were against it,\u201d says the Swiss native, adding that his mother homeschooled him and his sister. The goal was to encourage free thinking and self-reflection. Exams and anxiety were to be kept at bay. <\/p>\n

By no means did \u201cfocusing on oneself\u201d result in a person with egocentric traits. On the contrary, Bennent has long been concerned about the plight of children. The actor has been closely associated with terre des hommes for about 20 years, and he has served as an ambassador for the children\u2019s charity since 2019. \u201cWhat lies ahead? We have to take responsibility,\u201d he asserts. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Every single person can make a difference”<\/strong><\/p>\n

David Bennent focuses particularly on the textile industry. \u201cWe pay such a low price for many items\u2014and that\u2019s not right.\u201d The actor denounces the situation in countries such as Bangladesh and India, where children are forced to work under terrible conditions. If everyone just gave a little thought to where textiles come from and was willing to adjust their buying habits slightly, that would already be a big step forward. <\/p>\n

Bennent wants to dispel the misconception that individuals can\u2019t make a difference. He cited the example of a major food and beverage corporation that, after its drinking water policy became public, saw a 20 percent decline in sales over the course of three years in some parts of the world. Bennent commented: \u201cThe cumulative effect of our behavior certainly has an impact. You can see that here.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bennent appealed to the students: “Each and every one of you is important.” And they were so impressed by his remarks that they took several selfies with the actor, who now lives in Berlin. Whether a guest at the Steinm\u00fchle is interesting to young people apparently has nothing to do with their age. And, as we learned, neither does their awareness of social issues.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Older folks will remember”…a clich\u00e9 that\u2019s hard to avoid at this point: At the age of twelve, David Bennent\u2014born in 1966 and the son of a Swiss acting family\u2014played Oskar Matzerath in the film adaptation of G\u00fcnter Grass\u2019s *The Tin Drum*. A successful film that filled movie theaters starting in 1979 and was known for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":46353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,95,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-music-theater","category-collaborations-partnerships","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49400,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46349\/revisions\/49400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}