Michel Berger fans have heavy hearts. This August 2, 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the death of the artist, swept away by a devastating heart attack at the age of 44 in the city of Ramatuelle. A short but intense existence, punctuated by success, recognition but also drama. Throughout his life, Michel Berger had to face the worst situations: the illness of his daughter Pauline, suffering from cystic fibrosis, the disappearance of his big brother Bernard in 1982 and the terrible abandonment of his father when he was not old. only 6 years old.
Michel Berger grew up surrounded by his parents, Jean Hamburger, professor of medicine, Annette Haas, concert performer and Bernard and Françoise, his brother and sister. The small family lives peacefully until the patriarch falls ill and undergoes an operation. No one knows then that she will forever change everyone’s lives. In 1953, suffering from tuberculosis, Professor Jean Hamburger had to be operated on. An intervention with terrible consequences.
“Professor Jean Hamburger, triple academician, abandoned his children, of whom Michel was the youngest, overnightindicated to Evening Mag last May the journalist Yves Bigot, when the artist’s biography was reissued. He acted like he didn’t know them. He told his wife and children that he didn’t know who they were, he asked them to stop bothering him. He never contacted them again.”
Despite the absence of her husband, Annette, mother of Michel Berger, regularly sent letters to the father of her children to give him news of them. Texts left unanswered. However, Michel Berger had kept in touch with his father “on rare occasions“: “Both were very embarrassed by each other’s existence. Professor Jean Hamburger hated when people asked him if he was Michel’s father. And Michel didn’t like being reminded of who he was the son of. He didn’t want to be someone’s son, he wanted to be himself. The rare times that Michel contacted his father, it was when he had friends who were having health problems and he then sought his father’s advice. But it never really worked out between them.” Perhaps the reason why he never dared to live his love in broad daylight with Beatrice Grimm…