Marika Kilius & Hans Jürgen Bäumler - Honeymoon in St Tropez (1964)

GER Nr. 3 (01.06.1964) 17 Wochen
Aus dem Film "Die große Kür"

Marika Kilius (German pronunciation: [maˈʁiːkaː ˈkiːli̯ʊs] (listen); born 24 March 1943) is a German former pair skater. With Hans-Jürgen Bäumler, she is a two-time Olympic silver medalist, a two-time World champion, and a six-time European champion. Earlier in her career, she competed with Franz Ningel.
Marika Kilius, the daughter of a hairdresser, was born on 24 March 1943 in Frankfurt am Main, Hessen. In 1964, she married Werner Zahn, the son of a factory owner from Frankfurt am Main. The couple divorced, and Kilius also divorced her second husband. She has two children, Sascha and Melanie Schäfer, and as of May 2005, two grandchildren.
Kilius began as a singles skater but picked up pairs very early. Her first partner was Franz Ningel. They placed fourth at the 1956 Olympics and won the silver medal at the 1957 World Championships. Kilius was still a child when she was paired with Ningel, who was more than six years her senior. By 1957 she had grown to be taller than her partner, which caused problems on their lifts, so the team split up.

For a time following her split with Ningel, Kilius competed in artistic roller skating as a singles skater. She was the World Roller ladies' champion in 1958.

Meanwhile, in 1957, Kilius began skating with Hans-Jürgen Bäumler under the tutelage of Erich Zeller. Between 1958 and 1964, they won the German Championships four times, European Championships six times and the World Championships two times. Their first World title, in 1963, followed cancellation of the 1961 event due to the crash of Sabena Flight 548 and a collision during their performance at the 1962 World Figure Skating Championships that forced them to withdraw.

Kilius and Baumler also captured the silver medal at the Olympics twice, in 1960 and 1964. The skaters had signed professional contracts and skated as professionals with Holiday on Ice before the 1964 Olympics, a violation of their amateur status and strict IOC rules. In 1966, because the team had signed a professional skating contract before the 1964 Winter Olympics – against the rules at the time – they were stripped of the medal. As the New York Times reported, "prodded by two German members, the IOC "quietly re-awarded the West Germans their silver medals in 1987, 23 years after the Innsbruck Games, at an executive board meeting in Istanbul. The couple was deemed 'rehabilitated.'"

Kilius was voted the German female athlete of the year in 1959.

Hans-Jürgen Bäumler (born 28 January 1942) is a German former pair skater, actor, and Schlager singer.
Bäumler became famous in pair skating with his skating partner Marika Kilius. Between 1958 and 1964, they won the German nationals four times, became European champion six times, and world champion in pair skating twice. Their coach was Erich Zeller. The duo won a silver medal at the 1960 Olympic Winter Games, and Bäumler became one of the youngest male figure skating Olympic medalists. In 1964, they won a silver medal again.

The duo had signed professional contracts and skated as professionals with Holiday on Ice before the 1964 Olympics, a violation of their amateur status and strict IOC rules. In 1966, they were stripped of the medal because of this. As The New York Times reported, the IOC "quietly re-awarded the West Germans their silver medals in 1987, 23 years after the Innsbruck Games, at an executive board meeting in Istanbul. The couple was deemed 'rehabilitated.'"

After their amateur figure skating career, both became singers of German Schlagers (German version of pop songs). In the mid-1960s, they recorded some songs together; Bäumler also had songs as a solo singer. Bäumler's greatest success was the song "Wunderschönes fremdes Mädchen" ("Beautiful Foreign Girl"). The most successful songs of the duo were "Wenn die Cowboys träumen" ("When Cowboys Dream") and "Honeymoon in St. Tropez", both in 1964.

From 1964, Bäumler has also worked as an actor. In 1969, he had a main role in The White Horse Inn, and in 1970 in Maske in Blau (Mask in Blue), both operettas. He was also successful in the television series Salto Mortale. In the mid-1970s, Bäumler hosted several quiz shows, among others Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm ("The apple does not fall far from the trunk"), Das waren Hits ("These were hits"), and Was wäre wenn ("What if") on ZDF. Between 1990 and 1993, he worked for RTL. Later, he was also seen as a theatre actor.