| Gunter Sachs | |
|---|---|
| Born | 14 November 1932 Schloss Mainberg (near Schweinfurt), Bavaria, Germany |
| Died | 7 May 2011 (aged 78) Gstaad, Switzerland |
| Nationality | German (1932-1976) Swiss (1976-2011)[1] |
| Occupation | Author, photographer, industrialist |
| Spouse | Annemarie Faure (m. 1956–1958) Brigitte Bardot (m. 1966–1969) Mirja Larsson (m. 1969–2011) |
| Relatives | Wilhelm von Opel (grandfather) |
Fritz Gunter Sachs (14 November 1932 – 7 May 2011) was a German photographer, author, industrialist, and latterly head of an institute that researched claims of astrology. As a young man he became a sportsman, then gained international fame as a documentary film-maker and documentary photographer. He was interested in astrology and its connection with mathematics and statistics.
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Sachs was born in southern Germany.[1] His mother was the daughter of Wilhelm von Opel; his father was Willy Sachs, sole owner of Fichtel & Sachs, a leading manufacturer of ball bearings and one of Germany’s biggest automobile suppliers. Willy was known to Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler[2][3] and arrested by the American military after the war but finally declared a follower and released. Gunter Sachs commented on his father’s past in several publications.[4] Willy committed suicide in 1958 by shooting himself.[5] Sachs' brother, Ernst Wilhelm, died in an avalanche in 1977.[5]
A playboy[5] in his early years, Sachs was romantically linked to the former Iranian queen Soraya Esfandiary.[6] He married three times.[6] His first wife, Anne-Marie Faure, died in 1958 during surgery.[6] He courted his second wife, Brigitte Bardot, by flying over her villa on the French Riviera in a helicopter and dropping hundreds of roses. The couple were married on 14 July 1966 in Las Vegas;[1] they divorced in 1969.[6] His final marriage was to Swedish former model, Mirja Larsson, (who was 26 at the time of their engagement[7]) which lasted from 1969 until his death.[6] He had a son Rolf Sachs (born 1955),[5] with his first wife, and a further two sons (Christian Gunnar and Claus Alexander) with his third wife.[8]
Sachs became a Swiss citizen in 1976.[5]
From 1969 until his death, Sachs was the chairman of the St. Moritz Bobsleigh Club.[9] Turn 13 of the St. Moritz-Celerina Olympic Bobrun is named in his honor.
Worked for Vogue, made 1st nude cover (French Vogue, 1972). In 1991 he worked with Claudia Schiffer: "Heroines" series.
For several years was the president of the Munich Museum of Modern Arts.
In 1972 he opened a gallery in Hamburg and organised the 1st European exhibition of his friend Andy Warhol. His big art collection included works by Jean Fautrier, Andy Warhol, César, Arman, Yves Klein, René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann and Allen Jones.
In the 1990s, Sachs made the international newspapers again after he commissioned major research into sun sign astrology using large samples. Sachs set out to test the assumptions of astrologers by gathering a team of scientists and statisticians which, over two years, analysed the lives of nearly one million men and women.
"In every case, there were significant results, way beyond what is explicable through mere coincidence," he is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail newspaper on 6 November 1997.
To facilitate the research he set up the "Institute for the Empirical and Mathematical Examination of the Possible Truth of Astrology in Relation to Human Behaviour". Then, using established statistical techniques and with help from the official statistics office in Switzerland (where the authorities have recorded the date and hour of birth of every citizen since 1875), his team gathered statistics on every aspect of human life.
His methodology and the statistical analysis have been criticized by mathematicians. They found serious errors in all parts and deny any statistical significance after the necessary corrections in his data.[10]
Sachs committed suicide on 7 May 2011 by a gunshot wound to the head[11][12] at his home in Gstaad, Switzerland. The suicide note stated that he acted because of what he defined as "hopeless illness A." (which some have speculated to be Alzheimer's[13]) adding that "The loss of mental control over my life was an undignified condition, which I decided to counter decisively".[6]