Dirk Galuba (86) Leaves Sturm der Liebe: Final Appearance on 23 October 2026

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Dirk Galuba (86) Leaves Sturm der Liebe: Final Appearance on 23 October 2026.

After 21 years at the Fürstenhof, it's over: Dirk Galuba (86) plays hotel patriarch Werner Saalfeld for the last time on 23 October 2026 in the ARD telenovela Sturm der Liebe. Anyone who assumes the production team decided on the departure is wrong – the decision comes from Galuba himself.

If you've been watching Sturm der Liebe since the very first episode, Galuba is probably what holds the Fürstenhof together for you: grumpy, warm-hearted, always with a dry quip on his lips. Since the series began, he's been a fixture of the ensemble and became one of the telenovela's most familiar faces as Werner. That he's leaving precisely now has less to do with the role than with the man behind it.

Similar to Werner, I also wanted to focus more on my private life.

After many years with a full shooting schedule, the 86-year-old wants to spend more time with his family in future. The sentence feels almost programmatic – as if Werner Saalfeld and his actor had really said goodbye in sync after all.

Why precisely now?

In conversation with TV Spielfilm, Galuba describes his step without sentimentality, but also without bitterness. It's not about turning his back on the series, but about giving himself more room again. Anyone who spends decades in a leading role knows how closely screenplay, rehearsals, makeup and private life interlock. At full pace, little is left at the end that belongs only to him. This is exactly the balancing act the actor wants to end – on his own initiative, at a time he himself has chosen.

What happens on 23 October 2026

On this day, Galuba stands in front of the camera for the last time as Werner Saalfeld. How the series frames the exit narratively is not evident from the material available so far. What's clear, though: with his departure, one of the longest continuous castings in German pre-evening programming ends – and, for many viewers, a piece of familiar television history.