Christian Mann

Christian Mann
Thore Schölermann as Christian Mann
Verbotene Liebe
Portrayed by	Thore Schölermann
Duration	2006-present
First appearance	Episode 2811 November 27, 2006
Profile
Gender	Male
Occupation	Professional horse trainer Co-owner of the No Limits with Oliver Sabel Former waiter at the No Limits Former professional boxer
Residence	Flat-share Düsseldorf, Germany
Relationships Parents Wolfgang Mann (deceased) Luise Mann (deceased) Sibling(s) Gregor Mann Spouse(s) Oliver Sabel (married) [2010-present] Romances Nico von Lahnstein Coco Faber Oliver Sabel Children Lily Sambu (foster daughter, with Oliver) Nieces and nephews Christian von Waldensteyck Katharina von Waldensteyck First cousins Stella Mann Sven Mann Sonja Mann Other relatives Luise von Waldensteyck (sister-in-law)

Christian Mann is a popular fictional character on German soap opera Verbotene Liebe (Forbidden Love) portrayed by actor Thore Schölermann since November 27, 2006.^[1]

Storylines

Christian is the little brother of Gregor Mann (Andreas Jancke). During his childhood he had to cope with his mother's suicide and his father's gambling addiction. He came to Düsseldorf to start a new life with Gregor. He had just been released from prison, where he was serving time for holding up a gas station. His father, Wolfgang (Jürgen Haug), was the real perpetrator, but Christian believed that prison would destroy him and took the fall for him. Christian was devastated when his father died while Christian was in prison; he had to wear handcuffs at the funeral.

Nico von Lahnstein (Verena Zimmermann) and Coco Faber (Mariangela Scelsi) see him one day on a bus and both fall in love with him. Christian doesn't know about Coco's feelings for him and begins a relationship with Nico. Coco suffers and when Christian needs to go back to prison, innocent again, for attacking Nico's boss, Schuhmann, Nico can't deal with Christian's situation and begs Coco to help her. So Coco writes love letters to Christian in prison and Christian thinks they are from Nico. After his release Christian finds out that Coco, and not Nico, wrote to him. Coco can't hide her feelings for Christian any longer and tells him the truth, though she knows that he loves Nico. But Christian begins to feel the same way about Coco and they kiss. When Nico finds out about it, she breaks up with him and sets him free to be with Coco. Christian and Coco are finally happy and enjoy their new love.

Later, Charlie (Gabriele Metzger) and Lars' nephew Oliver Sabel (Jo Weil) comes back to town after several years working on a cruise ship. Coco and Christian are among his first new friends, whom Oliver met through his cousin Olivia, and his good friend Andi. When Olivia causes a fire at the 'Blue Ice' club, Oliver moves into a room in the apartment Christian and Coco are sharing with Lars. Christian and Oliver begin to experience camaraderie and friendly competition as workout partners. However, they clash when Christian (and Lisa Brandner, who has been interested in Oliver for a while) discovers that Oliver is bisexual. Coco and Gregor call him on his intolerant behavior and Christian apologizes to Oliver. After Coco fights with Christian when he finds out she told Oliver about Christian's prison time, Coco is comforted by Oliver and the two of them share a kiss, which they decide to keep secret from Christian. Christian and Coco make up and he proposes a weekend with her in a rustic cabin. She turns the proposed trip into one involving Oliver, Sarah and Gregor as well on the grounds of needing to split expenses. Coco has trouble forgetting about the kiss and even tells Sarah about it after Sarah overhears a conversation between Oliver and Coco. She admits to Sarah that she is starting to fall in love with Oliver. Oliver develops feelings for Christian as they sit alone by the campfire and Christian begins to reveal his more vulnerable self. Christian says his father and he were closest on camping trips like this one. He tells Oliver about his loneliness when in prison for his father, an episode which kept him from his dream of sports college, and about his sadness he didn't tell his father how much he loved him on what turned out to be their last meeting. He unknowingly fans Oliver's romantic attraction when he adds, 'I would like to know if I was important to someone.' After the confidences he feels a strong bond of friendship with Oliver.

Back home, Oliver worries that the new friendship will be destroyed if Christian finds outs Oliver was the man who kissed Coco. Christian in fact overhears Coco confiding to Sarah about a kiss with some man other than Christian. At first she pretends it was a drunken kiss with a stranger at a party, and Oliver pretends to know nothing about it when the obsessed Christian seeks him out and asks him if he knows who it was. After Oliver's malicious cousin Olivia forces her hand Coco confesses to Christian that the kiss was with Oliver. Christian furiously confronts Oliver over his lie regarding the kiss and accuses him of pretending to be gay in order to get at his girlfriend. Later, Oliver finds Christian working off his fury at the boxing club and demands to explain his actions to Christian. Christian hotly demands some evidence that Oliver is being honest this time and is not interested in Coco. Oliver's pent-up feelings for Christian then burst out in a passionate, unpremeditated kiss from which Christian recoils in horror. Afterwards, Oliver is gloomy, convinced his impetuousness has ruined any chance of friendship with Christian. Christian meanwhile reassures himself about his sexuality by having sex with Coco in the changing room at his boxing club.

Though he tries to persuade himself that Oliver's feelings for him disgust him, Christian soon finds himself replaying the kiss with Oliver in his mind. He also has a disturbing dream in which he does not recoil from Oliver's kiss but prolongs it. Coco brings him a letter from the sports college inviting him to try-outs. Christian's bafflement turns to anger when Oliver admits he took it on himself to send in the application Christian had filled out but did not mail from lack of belief in himself. He shouts at Oliver to stay out of his private affairs. Later Oliver tells him that he can't get Christian out of his head and that he will always try to help him, like it or not.

Christian becomes confused about his relationship with Coco. Coco proposes getting the relationship back on track by moving into their own apartment, but he then upsets her by abruptly leaving as they begin to make love. Next, he tries to forget about Oliver by telling Coco he will leave Düsseldorf and join her on a trip to Goa, but then pulls out the next day after overhearing Oliver tell Olivia how miserable he will be without Christian nearby. Christian breaks up with Coco, leaving her all upset. Coco finds out about the kiss that Christian and Oliver had (Olivia accidentally blurts out the details while attempting to comfort Coco) and confronts Christian, who admits that since the kiss, he no longer knows what he feels about anything. Coco leaves Christian a letter wishing him happiness whether with women or men, and expressing her confidence he will be able to be open again with his friends once he comes to know himself. She leaves for Goa, India, by herself. She then phones Christian and gets the bad news about Jana, who died.

When Christian passes his swimming test for college, he thanks and hugs Oliver for sending in the application. 'I would never have had the guts to do it. After everything I said before, to stay so invested in me, that's super-nice!'

Even though he claims publicly and to himself that he isn't gay, Christian finds himself at an Internet chat room for men who have feelings they don't understand for other men. He takes the most anonymous code name he can think of, Guest84, and strikes up a conversation with a man with the code name Rascal. Neither guessing the other's real identity, Christian and Oliver (Rascal) pour out their hopes and fears about their relationship through the chat room over the next few days. Christian is horrified when Rascal finally feels comfortable enough with his chat partner to send him his picture, which gives Christian the shock of finding out he has been baring his heart to Oliver. This leads to a heated confrontation, since Christian wrongly suspects that Oliver knew he was talking to Christian the whole time. The confrontation brings all their feelings to a head and results in Oliver and Christian's first romantic and physical intimacy.

Afterwards, Christian is still confused enough that he tells Oliver this first experiment convinced him he is not gay. However, Oliver doesn't believe him. He remembers his own coming-out and is sure Christian is just hiding his feelings because he's scared of them. Christian has flashbacks of touching Oliver. His track entrance trial at the sports college doesn't go well until Oliver shows up and Christian feels a sudden belief in himself and a will to succeed. He passes the trial but is still nervous being seen with Oliver at the track and pushes him away.

Co-worker and friend Miriam asks Christian out. After some persuading from Gregor, who can't understand why Christian is not dating anyone, he agrees to go. However, when they get there Oliver is already there dancing with another guy called Rick. Christian doesn't react well when Rick "bumps" into him and starts a fight with Rick. Oliver manages to stop the fight and accuses Christian of being jealous. Christian and Miriam go back to No Limits followed by Oliver and Olivia. Oliver makes a joke about what Christian did and Christian explains he did it because Rick wasn't a nice guy. Christian then tells Miriam that he has a headache and is going upstairs. After some persuading from Olivia, Oliver follows him, but Christian locked himself in his room and won't let Oliver in. Oliver then tells Christian, "I've fallen head over heels in love with you..." and warns him that he is not going to go away. Christian eventually unlocks the door, Oliver comes in, and Christian tells Oliver, "I tried fighting it but... I've fallen in love with you", followed by them kissing and having passionate sex to Sia's, "Breathe Me" playing in the background. They have at last become a couple.

They try to hide their relationship from other friends but it is later discovered by Judith, their flatmate, and Olivia. To Christian and Oliver's surprise, the friends who discovered their relationship are fine with it and promises to keep it a secret.

Boxing career

In the meantime, Christian has been given a contract by Wolle Grandetzki (via Gregor), a boxing contractor who hates gay people, so Christian hides his relationship with Oliver. When Christian wants to come clean to everyone, Oliver stops him and resolves to keep their love a secret as long as it takes to get Christian into the boxing world. When Christian gives into Wolle's pressure and accepts steroids from him, Oliver reasons with him and convinces him not to take them. Wolle by chance sees the two of them hugging and confronts them to which Christian denies everything and accuses Oliver of making a pass at him. Wolle hits back by making stinging remarks of Oliver and asks him to keep away from Christian. Oliver, although hurt, goes along with Christian's impromptue remarks to secure Christian's boxing career. However, Christian feels bad, apologizes to Oliver and soon fires Wolle from his position as marketer because he continues to interfere in his life, even going so far as to demand he move out to be away from Oliver, as Oliver's image as bisexual may rub off on Christian's own boxing career.

Gregor begins to wonder what's up with his brother and even asked Judith, which she lies and tells Gregor to ask Christian himself. Christian and Oliver are caught in bed together by Gregor, and Christian assumes his brother has reacted badly. However, it turns out that Gregor is not bothered by who his brother is with, so long as Oliver makes his brother happy, and is only upset that Christian did not confide in him and suspected him of homophobia. Oliver confronts Gregor and brings Gregor with him to talk things out with Christian, which they do.

Soon after, Christian hires Gregor as his marketer in place of Wolle, and the brothers are once again on good terms. Unfortunately, to keep his image as heterosexual boxer intact not only does his continued relationship with Oliver have to become even more secret, but Judith agrees to become his 'beard'. Effectively, he uses his pretend girlfriend to hide his true relationship, until he can prove his worth as a fighter regardless of his sexuality. But the whole "beard" plan does not work out, for Judith's boyfriend, Fabian, becomes insanely jealous. Until Axel, Christian's boxing partner, becomes convinced that Christian is straight, he insults Christian and Oliver. Luckily, Axel does butt out of Christian's personal life, and his suspicions are put to rest after the "Christian and Judith" story has ended with the two "breaking up".

Finally, after having some couple troubles with Oliver because Christian feels lack of support from him, Christian beats Axel in his first official fight (in which Oliver arrives at a critical moment just when things are looking bad for Christian) and then comes out by publicly kissing Oliver in the ring. The night's celebrations turn sour, however, when Axel finds Oliver alone and beats him up with a night-stick. Christian find Oliver lying semi-conscious with head injuries and takes him to the hospital where Leonard works. Leonard tells Christian and Oliver that they should report the assault to the police, but Oliver just wants to go home. He soon recovers and everything becomes normal between them but they decide that Axel should be taught a lesson. So they try to convince many sports magazines to print the story of how Axel is a homophobic and beat up Olli who was much weaker comparatively to him just because he was the boyfriend of the boxer to whom he lost a match. But none of the magazines agree to print the story and also the charges against Axel get wiped out due to lack of evidence. Constantin, who shares the apartment with the two, decides to help them and asks Carla whether she can print the story. She uses her influence and the story ultimately gets printed in a newspaper.

Meanwhile, Oliver and Christian become very close to each other and everybody, even Lydia and Sebastian, looks up to them as the perfect couple. But Oliver starts getting severe headaches and feels dizzy sometimes. At first he doesn't realize how serious the near-blackouts are and downplays them to Christian but they become more frequent. While working at the bar at Schneider's, he collapses. His aunt Charlie and Christian take him to the hospital where Leonard works and they discover that Olli is suffering from a burst aneurysm, something like a cerebral hemorrhage. This was a result of the assault on him by Axel. Oliver's friends sit up all night at the hospital, tense and frightened, while an emergency operation to save Oliver's life is performed. Christian feels himself responsible for everything because he thinks that his going ahead with his career has caused Oliver all the trouble. He is almost convinced Oliver will die. In a fit of rage Christian goes to Axel with a baseball bat. But Olivia arrives in time to stop Christian from making a terrible mistake which would lead to another jail term and wreck everything for him.

Oliver's operation turns out to be successful, fortunately. Christian, who does not know this yet, goes to his boxing club where he tells all of his club mates how cowardly they have acted by supporting Axel who may have ended up killing Oliver just because he couldn't stand that a gay boxer defeated him. When they hear about Olli's condition, they all feel guilty, especially Kai, who is Axel's closest friend in the club. In the meantime Olivia reaches the club and tells Christian that Olli's operation has been successful and that he is recovering. Christian runs back to Oliver and sits besides him near the bed. The danger Oliver has been in makes Christian feel weak and sorrowful. He holds Oliver's hand and starts weeping. He can no longer control his emotions and says "I love you so much". Olli wakes up from the artificial coma and says "I am not going to leave you so easily." Both of them share a laugh and Christian becomes relieved that his love is not dying after all.

While still at the hospital, Christian receives a call from Kai who calls him at the boxing club. Christian goes to the club expecting a fight. But when he reaches there, all the club members except Axel surround him and ask him to forgive them. Kai tells him that he will support him and that he was very sorry about Oliver's condition. Kai has already called the police who take Axel with them in the presence of Christian and with the support of the whole club. Christian is asked by all his club mates to join the club again even if he is with his guy. Things seem to change for Christian and Oliver after all.

He continues training for Boxing while also going to Sports College. While training to land a summer job at a rehab clinic as a fitness coach, he falls ill and faints in his bathtub while having a shower. He is taken to the emergency room. A short hospital stay ensues during which he is told that he suffers from Myocarditis and that he may never be able to do sports anymore.

Horse Trainer

He starts searching for new jobs and lands a job as a park and forest administrator at the Königsbrunn Castle. However, he finds the job uninteresting and Stella notices that he has a gift for taming horses. He starts training at Köningsbrunn as a professional Horse Trainer.

Chrolli/Ollian

Christian and Olli's relationship troubles started when Christian was working part-time at NoLimits where after he has an altercation with Oliver because he gets jealous when he sees Olli indulge a flirtatious health inspector. Shortly afterwards, Oliver requests him to stop working at NoLimits for the sake of their relationship, after which the relationship improves. When Christian starts working at Königsbrunn, with Olli working full time at NoLimits, their relationship suffers. They hardly get to see each other and fight frequently. With the arrival of Rob a.k.a. Robert (a sophisticated Party Planner) into their lives things get worse. Christian loathes Rob and when Rob monopolizes Olli and keeps him up every night to go club-hopping, things worsen. At one of Rob's parties at NoLimits, Christian almost comes to blows with one of his friends when he sees him trying to sell coke in the premises. Christian is distrustful of Rob's intentions and is certain that he is after Olli. He confronts Rob when he finds them hugging at NoLimits. A few weeks later, after Rob gloats to Rebecca Von Lahnstein that he and Olli shared a kiss, she accidentally lets it slip to Christian that Rob had mentioned something having happened between Rob and Olli. The relationship is strained further when Christian forces Olli to confess that Rob kissed him. Enraged and humiliated by the deception, Christian storms out and goes to the castle where he meets Rebecca. His disillusionment and her unresolved feelings for him result in them sharing a passionate kiss which David accidentally walks in on.

When Christian and Olli decide to start off with a clean slate after Olli confesses about his kiss with Rob and apologizes for it, Christian begins to feel uneasy and finally confesses that he kissed Rebecca, planting doubts in Olli's mind about his true sexuality. Christian spots Rob peddling drugs in NoLimits twice. When he confronts Rob the first time, he threatens to implicate Olli if Christian goes to the cops. When Christian brings this up with Olli, both times, Olli cuts short their conversation berating him for being blinded by jealousy. Rob deliberately makes matters worse by spending more time with Olli everyday, much to Christian's growing frustration. Gregor sends Olli a letter informing him that he is planning on selling his shares in NoLimits and offers him right of first refusal. He offers to sell it to Olli for a lower price, but even that is too high for Olli. Christian talks to Gregor to try and convince him to keep his shares for a little while. Christian starts staying at the castle during the nights and this gives Rob an opportunity to put the moves on Olli. When Andi walks in on Rob naked, wearing only an apron, he berates Olli for making matters worse. Having been rebuffed by Olli several times, Rob professes his love for Olli and leaves NoLimits, refusing to have any more parties there as he is hurting because they cannot be together.

Gregor sells his shares in NoLimits to Christian but Olli is less than thrilled about the idea of having Christian second guess his choices, even though Christian declares that he would give Olli carte blanche in the management of NoLimits. When Olli informs Christian that Rob had left, he is more than happy to hear about it, only leading to a bigger fight between the two. The next day, Olli uses the "fire and ice" technique to reconcile with Christian after Rob informs Olli that he wanted to plan parties at NoLimits even though that may mean that he will have to deal with his unrequited love for him. When Rob invites Olli to go to New York with him to check out the club scene, Olli decides against going there taking Christian's sentiments into account. The next morning Christian makes a New York themed breakfast for Olli to thank him for being thoughtful and understanding. After they have a heart to heart, Christian insistes that he should go. So, Olli gets both of them tickets to New York much to Christian's amazement. They have an exhilarating experience in New York. When they return to Düsseldorf, Olli informs Rob that he is no longer welcome at NoLimits. When he tries to come back later in the evening when Olli is closing up, Olli berates him for belittling his love for Christian and tells him off. The next morning, Rob plants a packet of drugs in the Cafe while posing like he is extremely apologetic about his behavior and then he calls the Cops and leaves an anonymous tip about illegal drug peddling happening in NoLimits.

Fortunately, Rebecca sees him lean over the counter and when the Cops arrive to check the place, she hides the stash. She informs Christian and Olli and then plans revenge. She stages a rendezvous with Rob in his car where she pretends to plot over destroying Christian and Olli's relationship while unbeknownst to Rob she plants the same stash in his car. The last part of the plan falls into place when the police cart Rob away to prison for illegal possession of drugs. When Christian has to go to the hospital after an episode of chest pain, Olli is not allowed to know any details about him at the hospital. This prompts a discussion about planning an advanced medical directive regarding which Christian chats with Sebastian, who playfully suggests that he get married to circumvent having to fill out a ton of paperwork. Meanwhile, Miriam convinces Olli to get married and he decides to propose to Christian at NoLimits after decorating it with Valentine's Day decorations. Christian says yes and they celebrate. However, when Olli starts planning an elaborate event with hundreds of guests and sumptuous feasts Christian feels overwhelmed and suggests that they have an intimate wedding, just the two of them in Amsterdam. While Olli is initially thrilled that Christian had planned the perfect wedding for them, a conversation with Charlie prompts him to change his mind, much to Christian's irritation. They fight and take some time to ponder over what really matters and decide to take it slow and get married only when they're both ready.

On September 3, 2010 Christian held on to Oliver and married him in a church wedding. After the wedding Oliver and Christian start talking about adopting a child. After learning that adoption takes up to several years for gay couples, they make an attempt to get known with a lesbian couple, in order to try for in-vitro fertlization. However, the other couple demands Christian and Oliver to sign a contract, planning their future activities and decisions to ensure they will always be close to the child, and Christian and Oliver, unwilling to commit to a rigid plan, break up the agreement. By December, 2010, they start acting as foster parents for Lilly, daughter of a Cameroonian man.

Their relationship took a turn when Christian and Andi Fritzsche woke up after a party with Jessica Stiehl, who claimed both of them had sex with her. At first Christian told Olli and Olli forgave him, but then he started doubting, being one of his biggest fears that Christian would leave him for a woman, and finally asked Christian to move out. Christian lived at the stud farm in Königsbrünn for a while, until a fire destroyed all his possessions, forcing him to move with Olli's aunt Charlie, right infront of Olli's apartment.

The couple drifted even more apart after Olli witnessed Phillip zu Hohenfelden being hit by a car and thought himself responsibl, falling into depression. Finding himself rejected when he tried to help Olli, Christian started flirting with his female coworker, Theresa Erzberger, at the stud farm, eventually having sex with her.

References

1. ^ First appearance