Kim-Anne Jannes (born 1971 in Solingen, Germany) has been one of the best-known German-language mediums for over twenty years. She lives today in Switzerland, where she runs her own seminar centre – the Flügelwerkstatt – works mostly in individual sittings and multi-day workshops, and is known to a large German TV audience through appearances on the Fliege show, on Galileo Mystery (Pro7), on the RTL series Das Medium and on the ARD show maischberger. A friendly, plainly told portrait of a woman who has called herself a "medium" since childhood and who has made this work an unusually publicly visible profession.
Origin and early life
Kim-Anne Jannes was born in 1971 in Solingen, in western North Rhine-Westphalia. In interviews and in her books she describes that she had her mediumistic perceptions already as a child: she perceived images, feelings and voices that did not belong to what was happening before her physical eyes. Her family received these perceptions in different ways – sometimes disturbing, sometimes accepting. As an adult, Jannes no longer hid this gift but systematically made it her profession.
Her practical work as a medium began in the 1990s. Over time she became a first port of call for German-speaking clients who, after the death of a loved one, have the impression that the relationship does not need to end there. This quiet individual work – not the stage – is her actual business.
Books
Jannes has published several books over the years, in a simple, readable language addressed explicitly also to readers without esoteric background. The best known is Das Jenseits und die geistige Welt. Meine Arbeit als Medium ("The Beyond and the Spiritual World. My Work as a Medium"), published by Droemer Knaur in Munich (several editions since 2014). In it she explains, without theoretical effort, how she herself experiences contact with the deceased, which questions are most often put to her in sittings, and how she has methodically structured her work. The book also contains practical exercises with which readers can train their own intuition. Further books treat topics like accompanying the dying, grief processes and the question how consciousness continues after physical death.
Television appearances
Unlike many people working mediumistically, Kim-Anne Jannes has never hidden her activity – on the contrary, she has explained herself publicly. The most important documented television appearances:
- RTL: "Ein Gespür für Mord – Hellseher ermitteln" (November 2003).
- Fliege-TV, main subject mediumistic work (15 June 2004).
- Pro7: "Galileo Mystery – Können Hellseher Verbrechen aufklären?" (29 June 2007).
- RTL: "Das Medium" (31 October 2010) – probably her best-known show, in which together with the widow Freya Barschel she mediumistically investigated the death of Uwe Barschel in 1987. An experiment that at the time set German tempers boiling – the mediumistic investigation of the death of a former state premier in prime time was a media-history scandal. We treat this broadcast in detail in our article Kim-Anne Jannes: The Uwe Barschel Case.
- ARD: maischberger – appearance as an invited guest on a panel discussion about death, grief and possible communication with the deceased (Wikipedia confirms the appearance without giving an exact date).
These appearances have made Kim-Anne Jannes one of the few mediumistically working people in the German-speaking world who are known by name even outside the esoteric scene.
"High energies" – the recurring observation of technical disturbances
One observation that Kim-Anne Jannes has mentioned in several television appearances and interviews concerns the technology in her surroundings. She describes that in her vicinity electronic devices repeatedly have unusual failures: lamps flicker, screens show distortions, microphones cut out, recording devices suddenly stop working. In a maischberger episode this phenomenon became visible during the broadcast itself – the studio signal showed dropouts in her presence. She interprets this as an effect of the "high energies" that accompany her mediumistic work. Anyone looking for a comparison from the history of science thinks immediately of the Pauli effect – that anecdotally documented tendency for physical apparatus to fail more often than chance in the presence of the Nobel-laureate physicist Wolfgang Pauli. Both observations have so far not been methodologically strictly tested, but they are reported consistently over years by various independent observers. With Pauli these were his own physicist colleagues at ETH and in Copenhagen; with Jannes they are TV crews and clients. A definitive physical explanation has not been given by science in either case.
Seminars and the Flügelwerkstatt
Today the focus of Jannes's activity lies in Switzerland. In her seminar centre Flügelwerkstatt (Zurich area) and in Mannheim she regularly offers multi-day workshops – on the training of one's own perception, on grief accompaniment, on questions around dying and continued existence, on mediumistic training. The workshops are in German and address people who want to approach the subject not as show but as serious personal work. She also continues to give individual sittings.
Her internet address is kim-anne-jannes.ch; on HeavenConnect you can find her under consultant profile Anne.
In our Knowledge overview you will also find a video recommendation featuring Kim-Anne Jannes – the Geist & Quantenphysik episode on the afterlife contact in the Uwe Barschel case.
What remains
- A public, long career. Kim-Anne Jannes has made her mediumistic work visible in German and Swiss media for over twenty years – without taboo, without false promises, without large-scale stage shows. That is unusual and makes her one of the most recognisable voices on the subject in the German-speaking world.
- Emphasis on individual work. Despite all the TV visibility, the core of her work is the quiet individual sitting with clients who miss someone who has died. That is the unspectacular, helpful side of mediumship.
- Books in simple language. Her publications, especially Das Jenseits und die geistige Welt, are written for a broad readership – without theoretical effort, with concrete examples from her practice.
- The Barschel case. Her perhaps most famous work – the 2010 sitting with Freya Barschel – we treat separately in a dedicated article: Kim-Anne Jannes: The Uwe Barschel Case.
- Technology phenomenon. The recurring observation that electronics fail in her presence is anecdotal but consistent. It stands in line with similar reports about other mediumistically working people and with the famous Pauli effect from the history of physics.
Sources
- Kim-Anne Jannes: Das Jenseits und die geistige Welt. Meine Arbeit als Medium. Droemer Knaur, Munich (several editions since 2014).
- Wikipedia: Entry "Kim-Anne Jannes" – with biography and list of TV appearances.
- Spiegel Online: Jenseits-Show "Das Medium": Großer Spuk mit Freya und Uwe, 2010 – on the RTL broadcast with Freya Barschel.
- fernsehserien.de: Filmography Kim-Anne Jannes.
- Her own website: www.kim-anne-jannes.ch (with information on sittings, seminars and the Flügelwerkstatt).
- HeavenConnect, consultant profile: /consultant/27 (display name: Anne).