“A wonderful ride through life”

If style were a superpower, Günther Krabbenhöft would be Berlin’s answer to Superman – but sporting a bow tie, hat and leather gloves. Dressed in his chic outfits, the 79-year-old Berliner whirls his way around the German capital. It’s hardly surprising that he has long been dubbed “the world’s most stylish grandpa”. So what’s his fashion philosophy? “I dress for myself, not for others.” 

It was somewhat by chance that Krabbenhöft began his career as a style icon. In 2015, a photo of him - aged 70 at the time - went viral. A tourist snapped a pic of the “hipster grandpa” at Kottbusser Tor underground station and posted it on Facebook. And suddenly Günther was everywhere: in fashion blogs, on cover pages and of course on social media. He now has almost 300,000 followers on Instagram.  

When two young women invited him to Berghain, Berlin’s most famous techno club, one Sunday morning, Krabbenhöft discovered his love of partying. “I danced for eight hours straight and then floated home on cloud nine,” he told regional broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk. These days, he feels completely at home on the dancefloors of Berlin’s clubs. While most of his peers make themselves comfortable on the sofa in the evening, Krabbenhöft goes dancing – preferably to techno and until the small hours. Anyone who has ever experienced him at a party will know that things will never get boring when he is around. 

“The older I get, the more I dare to be young,” he explains in his book “Sei einfach du! Zum Jungsein bist du nie zu alt” (Just be yourself - you’re never too old to be young). In it, he shares his thoughts about life and explains why it is worthwhile enjoying old age with humour and a dash of craziness. Not only is Krabbenhöft a fashion icon, he is also an ambassador of a self-determined life that has no time for ageist clichés. “I want to fill my heart with beautiful thoughts and feelings so that I can say at the end of the day that I had a wonderful ride through life,” he said in a podcast broadcast on the “Bremen Zwei” radio station.