Dschinghis Khan: How They Live...: Louis Potgieter

(BRAVO Magazine, circa 1980-1981)

I apologize for the size of the images; I wanted to stitch them together in photoshop and then isolate Louis' section, but as it turns out, I don't know how to do that.

A couple things are interesting about Louis' part of the article.

First off, this Madlein Davis business. Who was she? Why is there almost no other references to her in any other DK press-articles? (I can think of exactly two others, besides this one, in which she appears or is mentioned.)

Secondly, I guess we finally learn the reason why he cut his hair short. There's no date on the magazine, but clearly it's after Steve left, and around the time of "Wir Sitzen Alle im Selben Boot"

Translation is as follows, to the best of my ability:

Louis Potgieter: For Madlein, He Sacrificed his Mane.

Louis Potgieter, long the long-haired "Mongol-lord" poster-child of the group, is barely recognizable: he wears his hair newly short.

"My girlfriend Madlein wanted it so. Otherwise, she wouldn't move into my apartment. I've just come from the hairdresser."

Louis was the first in Dschinghis Khan. The producer and mental father of the groupe, Ralph Siegel, searched namely for the Dschinghis-Khan-concept first a dancer. When he was at a ballet-evening at the Gartnerplatz at Munich's State Theatre, he discovered a young Louis Potgieter in the [ballet] troupe, and had found his type.

Louis: "At 190 cm, I was almost too tall, and therefore could not wear on stage any shoes with a high heel."

After two and a half years with the group, his life has completely changed for him:

"Earlier, I was only the poster-child of the group. Today, I sing the songs with them. I also do the choreography for our performances."

Louis lives in an apartment on Viktualienmarkt [farmer's market] in Munich. If you want to visit during the day, you must go through a flower shop in the backyard:

"I love flowers, and I look forward every morning, when I first go through a sea of flowers before I get to the street."

He has lived here together with his dark-skinned girlfriend, Madlein, since March, in this three-room apartment. He has even set up and assembled the furniture from all over Europe. An Italian mirror is an art object with volute-mounted neon tubes in the hallway. Louis is proud of the zebra skin under his Plexi-glass coffee table in his living room. His father, a passionate hunter, shot it for him on his 18th birthday, in his homeland of South Africa.

Louis has always had a penchant for the unusual. He does not drive a car. Every day he runs more than ten kilometers through the English Gardens to keep fit, listening with headphones to hot Funk music on the radio.