Kessler Twins Die by Joint Assisted Suicide at 89

Alice and Ellen Kessler, the renowned German twin entertainers known as the Kessler Twins, died together on November 17 at their home in Grünwald, a suburb south of Munich, through a joint medically assisted suicide at age 89.

Police in Munich confirmed the deaths as a double suicide, and the German Society for Humane Dying, or DGHS, verified that the sisters had chosen the procedure after more than a year of membership and consultations. Spokesperson Wega Wetzel stated that their decision was "well-considered, longstanding, and free from any psychiatric crisis," emphasizing the desire to end their lives together on a specific date. The process involved preliminary discussions with a lawyer and a doctor, followed by a physician administering an overdose of anesthetic via infusion, which the patients themselves initiated. DGHS notified authorities after the deaths, in line with its handling of over 600 such cases last year.

The twins, born on August 20, 1936, in Nerchau during the Nazi era, shared an inseparable bond throughout their lives. They trained as dancers in the children's ballet of the Leipzig Opera and, at age 16 in 1952, fled with their family from East Germany to the...