At the Berliner Tor with Jon Flemming

Two men sit on the kerb next to hvv switch point Berliner Tor, hold their faces up to the sun and fill the square with a mix of pop songs and German rap. Jon Flemming Olsen poses for the photographer between passers-by. "What's he doing being photographed like that?" the men with the music want to know. A short answer to this question? Rather difficult.

Because Jon Flemming Olsen does quite a lot. And he does it all quite well. On his website, he presents himself as a musician, composer, singer, actor, presenter and graphic designer. The 59-year-old became famous throughout Germany thanks to the award-winning cult series Dittsche. Here he played the snack bar owner Ingo for over 18 years. Flemming is also the founder of the country group Texas Lightning. With the song "No No Never", which is still played up and down on the radio today, he took part in the Eurovision Song Contest for Germany in 2006. Meanwhile, his creative work is known without realising that it is by him: He has designed numerous CD covers, including for Udo Lindenberg, Echt, Selig and Annett Louisan. Jon Flemming has been travelling as a solo artist on German stages for several years now.

Once the pictures have been taken, it's time for a chat in the neighbouring bakery. No barbecue - but at least there are bar tables.

There are quite a few job titles on your website. What do you feel most like?

I'm currently recording my third album, so I guess I'm a musician at the moment.

You completed a crowdfunding campaign for it in March?

Exactly. It's the third of four solo albums that I'm putting together on my own with the help of a small Hamburg label and crowdfunding. So I can already describe crowdfunding as a good practice in my life as a musician.

Why crowdfunding in particular?

Because I'm producing something that has become unsellable: music today is actually a free gift that is thrown at you. Crowdfunding is a good way to produce music without going completely into debt.

Is it the same people who support you in every round?

There are repeat offenders, but thankfully there are always new people too. Crowd-funding like this is also a bit of an adventure every time, because between you and me, it would be incredibly embarrassing if something like this didn't work in public. Of course, you don't want to experience that.

Why did you want to meet here, at the Berliner Tor hvv switch point?

There is no other place in the city where I switch between modes of transport more often - so this is my hvv switch point. I use car sharing the least: when I go to my studio, which is about a kilometre and a half away from here, and I don't have anything to transport, I arrive here by underground and then take an e-scooter or sometimes a bike. Then I don't have any problems with rush-hour traffic - a decisive advantage. I also do car sharing here sometimes, but if at all possible, I don't drive a car. The fear of not finding a parking space is always there. But I still own a car.

Doesn't sound logical at first...?

I may only be a songwriter, but I'm usually travelling with a staggering number of instruments that I really couldn't even begin to carry. So without a car, no music. Nevertheless, I'm not a car fan. Maybe it's because of my childhood.

You'll need to explain that, please.

I grew up in Winterhude and we were pretty much the only family back then that didn't own a car. My father had somehow missed out on getting a driving licence and had developed a kind of car trauma over the years.In other words, anything to do with driving was a red rag for him, but also for us children.Every car journey that lasted longer than an hour made at least one of us throw up, but my father's trauma was also fuelled by an environmental awareness that was ahead of the times.So we didn't drive because it wasn't good for the environment.That's why we travelled a lot by train and public transport as a family.

Did you still get a driving licence?

Yes, the strange thing was that the fact that my sister and I dared to get behind the wheel made my father overcome his trauma.So he got a driving licence at the same time - probably with the highest number of driving lessons in 300 years.But he managed it and then became a very good and enthusiastic car driver in his middle-aged days.

Many people know you from the cult series Dittsche, where you stand behind the snack counter as Ingo and chat to Olli Dittrich.It was cancelled after 18 years and 23 seasons. How was that for you?

It was a great pity and sad, of course. WDR hadn't really been very interested in continuing the format for a while.

Why?

They had obviously realised very belatedly that what we were doing didn't have much to do with North Rhine-Westphalia - which they didn't like. It was particularly bad that we didn't know that our last programme would be our last programme. That was perhaps the biggest disappointment, that we couldn't really say goodbye after such a long time.

In these 18 years, you've somehow also become a snack expert...

...how? No!Well, to be honest, I didn't sell anything during the programme. Only in the first season did we actually have the deep fryer on while filming.I was then allowed to make fries during the programme - which was always a great pleasure for me: making fries is a very straightforward task and even beginners can do it well.

But you still had the deep fryer switched off in the second season?

The sound engineers complained after a while because it always makes a noise: the deep fryer is inextricably linked to the ventilation system. They weren't really happy with that.

Actually, I wanted to know: Where do you get the best sausage in town? After all, you wrote a book about snack bars: Der Fritten Humboldt - Meine Reise ins Herz der Imbissbude! But maybe I should have asked about chips?

Yes, in 2009 I went on a trip to Germany to eat snacks for my book and I was forced to eat various sausages as an accompaniment, so to speak. That sounds negative, but I'm actually a big fan of sausages. And for me, the queen of sausages in the German-speaking world is the Thuringian Rostbratwurst.

And where is the best in town?

I actually don't know.But the important thing is that the Thuringian must come from the grill. Most snack bars in Hamburg heat them up on a stainless steel plate. The Thuringian would cry if he saw that!

Let's move on from the snack bar: what are your favourite places in Hamburg?

The Stadtpark is close to my heart because we lived round the corner and I used to play football on the big lawn there as a little boy - or in front of the planetarium. I could throw paper aeroplanes into the park from its balcony. And then the Elbe beach. I'm afraid my favourite places are all places that sound very generic.

You often give concerts yourself - this year, for example, at Schloss Reinbek. What is your favourite stage in Hamburg?

The stage in the Stadtpark is great, of course. The only thing that's not great about it is the brick stage floor. It's hard as concrete - a stark difference to a normal stage floor. It's incredibly hard on the feet. It's better at the Schmidtchen - another really special stage. I've already played there a few times, and I'll be playing there again this year.

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