Historical discovery

Udo Jürgens as a crash pilot, Klammer as Tarzan

The young Franz Klammer and Udo Jürgens during filming.

(Bild: zVg)

Villach car expert Gerald Taferner discovered a Jodel D112 disassembled into individual parts in an attic in Bad Bleiberg. The old sports plane has a very special TV story.

It has been 40 years since Willy Hasslitzer wrote the script "Mit Udo und Franz" for ORF. "A TV show that tells the story of two friends who couldn't be more different," Hasslitzer recalls. And in the introduction, Udo Jürgens was seen sitting in the cockpit of a crashed plane as a crash pilot, while Franz Klammer swung into the picture as Tarzan.

The Jodel D112 from the TV show "Mit Udo und Franz" can be admired in the Taf-Timer car museum in Villach.

(Bild: zVg)

(Bild: zVg)

Udo Jürgens then said to Klammer: "Me Udo, you Franz" and he replied with: "Merci Chérie". The rest has long been considered Austrian television history. Hasslitzer: "We borrowed an airplane for the filming back then and the Klagenfurt city gardening department built a jungle especially for the occasion." Now the plane in which Udo Jürgens sat has turned up in an attic in Bad Bleiberg.

"It was in pieces," Gerald Taferner, who runs the Taf-Timer car museum in Villach, told Krone: "The Jodel D112 with the registration OE-ABB is our first plane." The sports plane was developed in France and had its maiden flight in 1950. The Jodel D112 is already a further development and has a 65 hp engine.

In search of TV coverage
"I am particularly pleased to be able to show another exhibit in my museum that has a special history," says Taferner. Numerous old recordings of the filming are also on display. Gerald Taferner: "Of course, I would also like to show visitors the accompanying TV program with Udo and Franz, but unfortunately I don't know how to get hold of it"