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Clarissa von Anstetten
Clara 'Clarissa' von Anstetten (née Prozeski and formerly Kaufmann) was played by actress Isa Jank from the show's debut on January 2nd 1995 to September 5th 2001. Jank left the show after a disagreement with the producers. A return of her alter ego was rumored several times, but the actress debarred the possibility.
Character's background
Clarissa is a attractive, manipulative and scheming woman and married to Christoph von Anstetten (Jürgen Zartmann), a wealthy aristocrat with a huge empire. She loves her rich life, after she grow up in a poorly family. When she was in a young age, Clarissa met the architect student Arno Brandner (Konrad Krauss) and fall in love with him. But Arno wasn't a man with much money and when Clarissa got pregnant with twins, she gave birth to them, and left Arno with their son Jan (Andreas Brucker). She took their daughter Julia (Valerie Niehaus) with her and became the countess of Anstetten with her marriage to Christoph, who loved Julia and adopted her. Julia and Christoph's son Henning grow up as siblings and believed that Christoph were the father of both of them. Clarissa kept the truth as a secret and made that to the lie of her life. As Christoph's wife, Clarissa became successful and has now her own fashion label, Ligne Clarisse. She considers for Julia to marry the wealthy Gero von Sterneck (then played by Manou Lubowski), who is a long-time friend to the Anstetten family. But Julia falls in love with a young man, named Peter Neumann. Clarissa tries to impedes the relationship, so that Julia can have a future with Gero and take him as her spouse. Even though, Julia and Peter have to face many problems, they seem to always find their way back to each other. When Clarissa realizes that Peter really is her son Jan, she is shocked. Jan already knows that Julia is his sister and tries to stay away from her. He wants to tell her the truth, so that she knows why she and Jan can't be together, but Clarissa warns him that the truth would destroy Julia. Even though, Jan sees that Clarissa only wants to keep her secret, because even Christoph doesn't know about Jan's existents, but he agrees that Julia shouldn't know the truth. Jan disappears, which almost costs Julia her life, when she tries to kill herself. Gero, Henning (then played by Markus Hoffmann) and Christoph can rescue her. After that, Julia falls into deep depressions. Clarissa is concerned, but keeps saying to herself, that Julia sooner or later will get over it. But Gero anticipates that something else is going on and wants Julia to see a doctor.
Meanwhile, Clarissa and Christoph face problems in their marriage, when Christoph finds out, that Clarissa worked on destroying the fashion company Cara Donna, where Barbara von Sterneck (then played by Isabelle Carlson), a good friend of the family and Gero's mother, is working as head designer. Clarissa elaborates a personal war against Barbara, which leads to many problems between the woman. Clarissa would have liked to see it Barbara come to work for her, but instead she wants to buy Cara Donna and run it herself. Clarissa is outraged by Barbara's plan and gets even more upset, when she finds out that Christoph wants to help and finance her. She tells Barbara that she should offer shares of the company for her loan that Christoph is giving her. Barbara agrees and goes to Christoph to offer him shares. When he discovers that Clarissa went again behind his back, he is very upset and his marriage is going into a serious crisis. Clarissa even begins a short affair with Alex Wiegand (Frank Behnke). But she ends things with him, when she finds out that he is the son of Max Orbis (Fred Berhoff), another former lover of Clarissa's.
Julia is diagnosed with leukemia, when the truth threatens to come out. Christoph wants to inform Julia's biological father, but Clarissa wants to make sure that it is really necessary. When Fiona Beckmann (Ingrid Capelle), who knows all about Clarissa's secret and is like a mother to Jan, finds out how serious Julia's condition is and that she could die, she tells Jan that Julia needs him. When Clarissa finds her son on Julia's bedside, she finally opens up and tells Julia, Christoph and Henning the truth. Christoph is hurt and shocked, when he finds out that Clarissa never told him about Jan and kept it a secret for more than twenty years. Clarissa tries to rescue herself and to find sympathy by her family. But even her loyal daughter Julia no longer wants to see her. When Christoph discovers all of Clarissa's lies and learns that she left Arno all this years ago and not he her, he wants her to leave Castle Friedenau.
In 2001, Tanja von Anstetten (Miriam Lahnstein), who became Clarissa's longtime enemy over the years, threatens her with a gun on a plane. Clarissa manages it to get the gun, when they find out that the plane will crash. Soon later, the news breaks to Henning (then played by Patrik Fichte) and Clarissa's best friend Charlie Schneider (Gabriele Metzger) that the plane crashed. Clarissa supposedly died as did the pilot. Tanja survived the crash and returns three years later to Düsseldorf. It's never been declared what really happened to Clarissa.
source wikipedia