Harald Glööckler

Harald Glööckler 2010

Harald Glööckler, real name Harald Glöckler^[1] (born 30. Mai 1965^[2] in Maulbronn-Zaisersweiher), is a German fashion designer^[3] and entrepeneur, who became famous mainly for his rhinestone-studded and glittering creations.^[4] Glööckler’s trademark is a crown motif, which is often supplemented by a “POMPÖÖS” lettering.

Life

Glööckler’s parents owned a restaurant. He has a brother who is two years younger.^[5] When he was 14, his mother fell down the stairs and died. Officially this was regarded as an accident, however according to Glööckler, the fall was caused by his father, to whom he never spoke a single word again, until he died in 1992, 13 years later.^[6][7]

From his youth on, Glööckler was interested in fashion and sewed together evenig dresses for acquaintances. He completed an apprenticeship as a retail salesman in the fashion store Sämann and was initially active as a salesman in the men’s department of a fashion house in Mühlacker.On November 30th, 1987^[8], together with his manager and life partner, the haberdasher Dieter Schroth, he opened up the fashion store “Jeans Garden” in Stuttgart, where they initially sold mainly jeans and shirts designed by Glööckler.^[9] Later, the name of the fashion business was changed to “Pompöös”. In 1990 both founded a fashion label under the same name. ^[10] In 1994 they organized the first own fashion show in the Stuttgart New Palace. For the fashion show, a song with the title Pompöös is my life was produced, to which a music video was filmed. After the performance at his own fashion show Glööckler performed in 1995 together with Dieter Schroth and other members in costumes as a music group Pompöös, including in the television broadcasts Nachtclub Hexenkessel, Arabella and RTL Nachtshow. In the same year he gained Gina Lollobrigida and Chaka Khan as customers and became friends with them. Lollobrigida opened its second fashion show, which took place in Stuttgart’s Alte Reithalle in 1995, and featured Chaka Khan and Grace Bumbry. In 1997 Glööckler was invited to Hong Kong to present his fashion show for the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Interstoff Asia trade fair. When he returned from Hong Kong, there were differences with an nanonymous business partner, who retired in 1998 from the company following a dispute. The business in Stuttgart then had to be closed. He was invited by Lollobrigida to Rome and discovered his love for painting. Back in Stuttgart in 1998 he opened an art gallery with his own pictures. In the same year Glööckler was invited to the Düsseldorf fashion fair CPD, for which he hosted the opening show, on which Brigitte Nielsen also presented her fashion.

In the year 2000 Glööckler moved from Stuttgart to Berlin. There, in 2002, he equipped the Christmas revue Jingle Bells in the Friedrichstadt-Palast with his creations and designed around 350 costumes for the dancers. In 2003 he received the from the Berlin tabloid B.Z. awarded prize Berliner Bär and the Berlin city magazine tip elected him among the “100 most embarrassing Berlineans”. In 2009, he launched the 5000 Euro Harald Glööckler Angel Award, honoring every year women who excelled in humanity and social commitment. In 2011 Glööckler designed his own jewelery collection for the discounter Lidl.^[11] In 2012 he created women’s clothing and accessories in cooperation with the mail-order company bonprix^[12] and also rolled out his own wallpaper collection.^[13] In 2013, a collection followed in cooperation with the menswear label “Masterhand”, which was presented for the first time on June 15th, 2013 at the wedding fair Interbride.^[14] His first collection of lamps called “Glööckler by EGLO”, which was turned into life in cooperation with EGLO Leuchten, could be seen for the first time at the 2014 Light+Building fair.^[15] At the end of January 2015 Glööckler presented a napkin collection, which he designed exclusively for the Duni company.^[16] In April 2015, the designer presented his paintings and sculptures for sale for the first time at a large vernissage in Berlin’s Galerie Mensing. The works cost up to 50 000 euros.^[17]

Since 2015, Glööckler lives with his business partner and life partner Dieter Schroth in Kirchheim an der Weinstraße.^[18] Since Februar 11th, 2015 they live in a  registered life partnership.^[19]

On behalf of the German Bible Society Glööckler designed a book slipcase for the new Bible edition that was issued on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the reformation in 2017.^[20]

In Juli 2018 Glööckler suffered from an anaphylaktic shock, which he survived thanks to den er dank immediate emergency treatment.^[21]

Other

For the animal rights organization PETA he was depicted naked in 2004 with the slogan “animals wear fur, people wear fashion”.^[22][23] Glööckler regards himself the inspiration for Sacha Baron Cohen’s main character from the film Brüno.^[24]

Television

After meeting with the managing director of the teleshopping channel HSE24 in Berlin in 2004, Glööckler began selling his products on television in Germany. At first only with fashion, later with home textiles and furnishings designed by him. Further teleshopping hosting he did on QVC UK in the UK in 2008 and Shop Channel in Japan in 2009. In June 2010, he did his last show at HSE24, as he did not extend the current contract that ran out in November 2010. Since January 2011 he is under contract with QVC Germany. He moderates the sales shipments of his products on a regular basis, where he occurs strongly extroverted.

In 2010 and 2011 Harald Glööckler was a permanent jury member in the dance show Let's Dance of the private broadcaster RTL.^[25] During his performances, Glööckler often attracted attention, as in addition to a great deal of jewelery, he also occasionally wore rhinestones on his face, as well as eye-catching clothing from his own women’s collection. In the UK, ITV Studios produced the 2010 documentary Harald Glööckler: Prince of Fashion for the station Living.^[26]

On 1 January 2012, VOX broadcast the documentation Mr. Glööckler moves out, in which Harald Glööckler is shown on the relocation of his company and residence from Berlin-Charlottenburg to Berlin-Mitte (“Unter den Linden”).^[27] From July 3, 2012 to August 21, 2012, the weekly personality documentary Glööckler, Glanz and Gloria was broadcast on VOX.^[28][29] In March and April 2013, VOX showed the second season^[30], however, their ratings were significantly lower than in the first season.^[31] In November 2013, Glööckler announced that he would no longer want to appear on television shows other than his QVC sales programs.^[32] However, in 2016 he was part of the jury at the RTL II-Plus-Size-Model-Castingshow Curvy Supermodel – Echt. Schön. Kurvig. In addition, he invited the presenter Pierre M. Krause with his interview format Krause kommt for two days in his Château Pompöös to Kirchheim (first broadcast on SWR on February 23rd, 2018).

Music

• 1994: Album Pompöös – Pompöös Is My Life (Label: Black Flame)^[33]
• 1994: Single Pompöös – I Want Your Love (Label: Black Flame)

Producers: Lenny Mac Dowell, Nikolei Dotzek, Oliver Voigt, Piero Brunetti

Film

• 2015: Fünf Freunde 4

Literature

• Ines Veith, Harald Glööckler: Pompöös – Harald Glööckler, der Modeprinz, Merch Movie Edition, 2001
• Harald Glööckler, Christiane Stella Bongertz (2010) (in German), Harald Glööckler (2. ed.), Köln: Bastei Lübbe, p. 268, ISBN 978-3-7857-2412-5 
• Harald Glööckler (2012) (in German), Jede Frau ist eine Prinzessin (1. ed.), Heimsheim: Printsystem Medienverlag, p. 228, ISBN 978-3-938295-46-5 
• Harald Glööckler (2013) (in German), Billy King - mein Leben mit Harald Glööckler (1. ed.), Falkensee: Tierisch Verlegen Verlagsgesellschaft UG, p. 104, ISBN 978-3-00-041263-9 
• Harald Glööckler (2013) (in German), Harald Glööckler der Medienskandal (1. ed.), Heimsheim: Printsystem Medienverlag, p. 144, ISBN 978-3-938295-88-5 

External links

• Official Website
  
• Harald Glööckler on IMDb

References