Helli Stehle

Helene Stehle (6 December 1907) is a Swiss actress and radiomeditor. In 1939, she was the first female newsreader in Switzerland. Stehle is a the oldest living person in Switzerland since 3 March 2017, following the death of 109-year-old Germaine Broyon.

Biography
Stehle grew up in Basel and trained as an actress in the 1920s at the Basel Conservatory with Oskar Wälterlin, Lucie Lissl and Rosalia Chladek. Subsequently, she played at the Stadttheater Basel in 1929-1932. From the late 1920s, at the latest from 1928 onwards, she worked at the Radiostudio Basel of the Swiss farmer Beromünster. Stehle first worked at the radio playgroup of Studio Basel, where she recited poems or participated in radio plays. Stehle was also an actress on German stages.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, Stehle was firmly engaged at the Radiostudio Basel, and was the first female announcer and newsmaker in the war years as her male colleagues were recruited into the active service. After the war Stehle stayed as an announcer at the radio and was finally promoted to the head speaker. In this function Stehle also formed young news speakers. In addition, she was involved in various radio plays and also directed some of them. Stehle was also seen as an actress, for example, in 1966 with Heinrich Gretler in De Tod ouffel Oepfelbaum. She was retired in 1967.