Adnan and Franziska Maral: "We feel terrific here"

Sometimes you find your home in a place you didn't have on your radar before. That's the experience actor Adnan Maral and his wife Franziska had with the Ammersee. At the Ammersee Hotel in Herrsching, the Marals spoke to SeeMagazine editorial director Sandra Djajadisastra and writer Silke Heuschmann about how they ended up settling in rural Upper Bavaria: a conversation about home, chance and spontaneity, captured by photographer Conny Mirbach.

It is always interesting to meet a married couple together for an interview. Who will do the talking? How much space do the partners leave each other? It was noticeable in the course of this conversation how respectfully and lovingly the couple treat each other.

Franziska and Adnan have been together for 16 years, eleven of which they have lived near Lake Ammersee, with their three children.

Excerpts from the conversation:

Franziska, you grew up near Zurich and you, Adnan, in Frankfurt am Main. You met in Berlin, your sons were born there. What brings you to rural Upper Bavaria?

Adnan: I experienced Berlin in the 80s, that was a crazy time. It always turned out that you could sleep somewhere, with acquaintances, with friends of friends. You ate together, celebrated, you were simply accepted. There was a form of hospitality that I learned to appreciate very much in Berlin.

Franziska: That's how I imagined Berlin to be. But when I came there in 2001, it was not like that anymore. It was not a warm city for me. So many people live there, and yet I always found it strangely empty on the streets. Besides, with children? Until you were out in nature, you had to really make an effort. Nevertheless, Adnan would not have left Berlin.

Adnan: When it became clear that Franziska didn't feel at home, I thought it was important to find a compromise. We also didn't want to live so far away from our parents anymore. Coincidentally, not long after, I was at a shoot in Munich, and the assistant director told me about a house on the city's outskirts that was available to be rented. Franziska and I spontaneously thought: We'll try that. If it doesn't work, we can always go back.

"To have dreams, to think about where you want to go and what you have to do to get there—I got that from Adnan."

Franziska Maral

Instead, you were drawn even further into the country.

Franziska: At some point we had the desire to own something of our own. We drove through the villages, looking at where we could enjoy life. And then we found a place on the Internet.

Adnan: A simple farmhouse near the Ammersee. We did not know the place at all. So we took a look at the house - and bought it a week later. We had a vision of how it should look. We were certainly naive.

Franziska: There were only two rooms, no heating, under the floor covering you directly hit earth. At that time we had a party - Adnan turned 40; I, 30 years old. We proudly drove to the house with our families and friends. The reaction? Extremely restrained. (laughs)

Read the full interview in SeeMagazin 2019.