Hermes Phettberg: The cult TV presenter is dead

He was 72 years old

TV cult figure Hermes Phettberg is dead

December 18, 2024 – 9:37 p.mReading time: 1 Min.

He was an eccentric, a self-confessed sadomasochist and an intellectual presenter. He became famous in the 1990s with his talk show. Now Hermes Phettberg is dead.

Former TV presenter Hermes Phettberg has died at the age of 72. The host of the cult-alternative “Phettbergs Nette Leit Show” fell asleep quietly in a Viennese hospital on Wednesday, his friend and nurse Hannes Moser told the German Press Agency.

The stage name of the Austrian, who was born Hannes Fenz, referred to the physical size of the odd and clever TV personality, whose talk show ran on the public broadcaster ORF in the 1990s.

The self-confessed sadomasochist lived largely in seclusion after suffering several strokes. Until recently he published a column in the Viennese weekly newspaper “Falter”. In the most recent issue, Phettberg reported that he was in the hospital with pneumonia.

“He was a friend, an eccentric, a man of letters, an intellectual, a satirist, a border crosser and, above all, a dear fellow human being,” wrote “Falter” editor-in-chief Florian Klenk on the Bluesky platform.