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- Actor
- Director
Ulrich Mühe was born on 20 June 1953 in Grimma, East Germany. He was an actor and director, known for The Lives of Others (2006), Funny Games (1997) and Der letzte Zeuge (1998). He was married to Susanne Lothar, Jenny Gröllmann and Annegret Hahn. He died on 22 July 2007 in Walbeck, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany, into a large and distinguished family of professional musicians. His father, named Johann Ambrosius Bach, was a violinist and trumpeter, employed by the city of Eisenach. His uncles were church organists, court musicians and composers. His mother and father died before Bach was 10. As an orphan, he moved in with his eldest brother, J. C. Bach, an organist and composer, under whose tutelage Bach studied organ music as well as the construction and maintenance of the organ.
Education: At the age of 14, Bach received a scholarship and walked on foot 300 kilometers to the famous St. Michael's school in Luneburg, near Hamburg. There he lived and studied for 2 years from 1699-1701. It was there that he sang a Capella at the boys chorale. Bach's studies included organ, harpsichord, and singing. In addition he took the academic studies in theology, history and geography, and lessons of Latin, Italian, and French. Besides his studies of music by the local Nothern German composers, Bach had important exposure to the music of composers from other European nations; such as the French composers Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marais, and Marchand, the South German composers Johann Pachelbel and Froberger, and the Italians Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi.
Personality and character: Bach was 17 when he made a 4-month pilgrimage, walking on foot about 400 kilometers from Arnstadt to the Northern city of Lubeck. There he studied with 'Dietrich Buxtehude' and became so involved that he overstayed his leave by three months. Buxtehude being probably the best organist of his time became the living link between the founder of Baroque music Heinrich Schütz and the biggest Baroque genius, Bach. Back in Arnstadt, Bach wrote 'Toccata and Fugue in D Minor' (1702), his first masterpiece; which stemmed from his bold organ improvisations. At that time he was in love with his second cousin Maria Barbara; whom he was taking upstairs to the church organ, where her presence was inspirational for his creativity. Bach was punished for the violation of the restrictions on women's presence in the church and he was fired. However, he eventually married Maria Barbara.
Cross-cultural studies: Bach studied the orchestral music of Antonio Vivaldi and gained insight into his compositional language by arranging Vivaldi's concertos for organ. Six French suites were written for keyboard; each suite opens with 'Allemande' and consists of several pieces, including 'Courante', 'Sarabande', 'Menuet', 'Gavotte', 'Air', 'Anglaise', 'Polonaise', 'Bourree', and 'Gigue'. As suggested by their titles, the pieces were representing songs and dances from various cultures. From the music of the Italians Antonio Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli, and 'Giuseppe Torelli'; Bach adopted dramatic introductions and endings as well as vivacious rhythmical dynamism and elaborate harmonization. Bach also performed the music of English, French, and Italian composers; motets of the Venetian school, and incorporated their rhythmical patterns and textural structures in the development of his own style.
Teaching: Bach selected and instructed musicians for orchestras and choirs in Weimar and Leipzig. His work as a Cantor included teaching instrumental and vocal lessons to the church musicians and later to the musicians of the court orchestra. Bach was also a teacher of his own children and of his second wife. In 1730, Bach presented his second wife with a musical notebook for studies, known as the 'Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach'. Compositions in the notebook were written in a form of minuete, polonaise, gavotte, march, rondeau, chorale, sonata, prelude, song, and aria; written mainly by Bach, as well as by his sons 'Carl Philip Emanuel Bach', Johann Christoph Bach, and composers 'Francois Couperin', Georg Bohm, and others.
Family: Bach married his second cousin, named Maria Barbara, who was the inspirational force for his early compositions. They had seven children, 4 of whom survived to adulthood. W. F. Bach, J. C. Bach, and C. P. E. Bach became composers. Maria Barbara died in 1720. On December 3, 1721, Bach married Anna Magdalena (bee Wilcke), a talented soprano, who was 17 years his junior. They had thirteen children. Bach fathered a total of 20 children with his two wives. His sons 'Friedemann Bach', Johann Christoph Bach, and 'Carl Philip Emanuel Bach' became important composers in the Rococo style. The descendants of Bach are living in many countries across the world.
Social activity: Bach replaced his friend Georg Philipp Telemann as the director of the popular orchestra known as Collegium Musicum, which he led from 1729-1750. It was a private secular music society that gave concert performances twice a week at the Zimmerman's Coffeehouse near the Leipzig market square. Bach's exposure to such a secular public environment inspired him to compose numerous purely entertainment pieces for solo keyboard and several violin and harpsichord concertos.
Politics: Being the undisputed musical genius, Bach still suffered from ugly political machinations. Although the Leipzig Council had enough money, they never honored the promised salary of 1000 talers a year; promised to Bach by the Mayor of Leipzig, Gottlieb Lange, at the hiring interview. Bach worked diligently, in spite of being underpaid for 27 years until his death. On top of that local political factions in the Leipzig Council manipulated Bach's educational work as well as his compositions and public performances. They were pressuring him as the Cantor and Composer and interfering his creative efforts by imposing restrictions on his performances because of their ugly political games. Bach prevailed as he composed and played his "Mass in B Minor" to the monarch of Saxony and was appointed the Royal Court Composer of Saxony.
King Frederick the Great invited Bach to Potsdam in 1747. There the king played his own theme for Bach and challenged the composer to improvise on it. Bach used the 'royal theme' and improvised a three-part fugue on the king's piano. Later Bach upgraded the king's theme to a more sophisticated melody, and composed an array of pieces based on the improved 'royal theme', which he titled "Musical Offering" and later presented this composition to the king.
Legacy: Bach wrote over eleven hundred music compositions in all genres. In Leipzig alone he wrote a cantata for every Sunday and feast day of the year, of which 224 cantatas survive. Some of his compositions were written on the same theme at different times in his life, like choral cantatas and organ works on similar themes with significantly reworked arrangements. The complete list of Bach's works, BWV, has 1127 compositions for voice, organ, harpsichord, violin, cello, flute, chamber music for small ensembles, orchestral music, concertos for violin and orchestra, and for keyboard and orchestra. His music became the essential part of the education for every musician. Bach influenced such great composers as Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Prokofiev and many other prominent musicians.
Bach is by far the most performed and recorded composer in history. His 'Das Wohltemperierte Clavier' (The well-tempered keyboard, or The well-tuned piano, in modern terminology) is the definitive work for all students as well as concert musicians. Bach's 'Orgebuchlein' (The little organ book) is a staple in the repertoire of organists and pianists, and some pieces from it were arranged for ensembles. Bach's many chorales, especially the "Mass in B Minor" are considered the best works in the genre. His last work 'The Art of Fugue' is best known for it's acclaimed performance by Glenn Gould. Bach's music was used in hundreds of films, thousands of stage productions, and continues being played all over the world.
The definitive biography of J. S. Bach was written by the Nobel Prize Laureate Albert Schweitzer.- Born in Germany in 1929 and raised and raised in Germany and Amsterdam. In 1942, shortly after receiving a diary for her 13th birthday, she and her family were forced to go into hiding to escape Hitler's persecution of the Jews. Hiding with another family and a dentist in an annex behind the building in which her father worked, Anne recorded their lives in her diary almost daily. In addition, she recorded her fights with her mother, her budding relationship with the other family's son, and her own maturation. In 1944, the eight people were discovered and arrested by the Gestapo. They were separated and put in concentration camps. At age 15, Anne died there in March, 1945. Her mother and sister, as well as the other people living with them, also died. Only her father survived; on his return home, he found her diary untouched and had it published in 1947. It was an immediate success, as millions of readers were touched by her indomitable spirit in the face of such chaos. The diary is famous even to this day and was the inspiration for the Broadway play "The Diary of Anne Frank" in 1955. The play was adapted by first time in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), followed by Anne Frank's Diary (1999), The Diary of Anne Frank (1995) and The Diary of Anne Frank (2016). It inspired four TV movies, The Diary of Anne Frank (1962), The Diary of Anne Frank (1985), The Diary of Anne Frank (1967) and The Diary of Anne Frank (1980). The diary also inspired the mini series The Diary of Anne Frank (1987), The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988), Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001) and The Diary of Anne Frank (2009). In addition, her life inspired Forget Me Not: The Anne Frank Story (1996) (about a Neo Nazi who back in time to meet Anne), My Best Friend Anne Frank (2021) and Mi ricordo Anna Frank (2009) (about her relation with her close friend Hannah Goslar), My Daughter, Anne Frank (2015) (about the relation between Anne and her father Otto) and Where Is Anne Frank (2021), based on the eponymous graphic novel, as well as the biographic documentary Anne Frank Remembered (1995) and Anne Frank, Then and Now (2014).
- Born in 1900, Heinrich Himmler was the godson of a Bavarian prince and became an officer cadet during the First World War. Never actually seeing combat, Himmler was discharged at the war's end and went to a technical college, where he majored in agriculture. During the turbulent years of the 1920s in which Germany's economy had been destroyed, Himmler managed to secure work as a chicken farmer and also joined one of the numerous paramilitary groups that had sprouted during that time. In 1923 he participated in the failed attempt by the Nazi Party to take over the Bavarian government (even though he was not yet a member of the party). In 1925, after the Nazis had regrouped, Himmler became a minor member of the Nazi Party in its Central Bavarian Office. Also, at that time, he accepted the position as Deputy Leader of a small group called the SS.
In 1929 Himmler became the Reich Leader of the SS, which at the time numbered less than 200 and was a suborganization of the SA. The SA, commonly known as the brownshirts, was the Nazi paramilitary wing, the group that did the actual dirty work--street fights, attacks against political opponents and outright political murders--of the party. Himmler at once expanded the SS, recruited hundreds of new members and introduced racial screening of members and changed the uniform to the much more familiar black jacket with red armband. In 1934 he orchestrated the destruction of the SA, which both he and Adolf Hitler had feared was becoming too powerful a force within the Nazi party, and many SA officials, from top generals on down to common street thugs, were either tried and executed or murdered outright. His actions secured the position of the SS as an independent group within the Nazi Party. He was made "Reichsfuhrer-SS" and now commanded not only the SS proper, but also the forces of the SD (internal security service) and Gestapo (state security police) as well as the fledging military SS then called the Verfungstruppe (later known as the Waffen-SS). In 1936 Himmler gained total police authority in the country by being named as Chief of German Police, and incorporated all of Germany's regular police forces into the SS. Three years later the Second World War began.
Himmler was the official head of the military Waffen-SS, yet in actuality he had little to do with this organization and left its running to such men as Paul Hausser and Sepp Dietrich. Himmer's most notorious activity during the war was setting in motion the extermination of all European Jews, the so-called "Final Solution", in which wholesale genocide was carried out against groups the Nazis considered "undesirable" or racially inferior, resulting in the murders of more than six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of others, a task that was assigned to the infamous Reinhard Heydrich.
By 1944 Himmler's SS had amassed total security and police authority in Germany, had a large armed force in the Waffen-SS and was also quite wealthy through the exploits of the SS Economics Office. Meanwhile, the concentration and death camps continued to be run by men of the SS Death's Head (Totenkopf) units. As the fortunes of war turned against Germany and Allied forces invaded the country and drew closer to Berlin, Himmler was given further power and appointed a military commander both of the Home Army and a frontline Army Group. His lack of military experience proved embarrassing and he was soon relieved of those duties. Meanwhile, however, he had climbed the political chain and been appointed Reich Minister of the Interior, which put him in line to be Hitler's successor. By 1945, with Germany crumbling under relentless Allied pressure, Himmler was on the brink of mental collapse and began to convince himself that he would be the postwar leader of Germany and Minister of Police for the Allies. He secretly offered to negotiate the German surrender, but Allied commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower flatly turned the offer down, refusing to have anything to do with the hated Himmler or his SS. When Hitler learned what Himmler had done, he stripped the former chicken farmer of all his ranks and titles and ordered his arrest. Himmler, however, still had much of the SS under his control and commanded it up to the end, even though Karl Hanke had been appointed the new Reichsfuhrer-SS.
After the surrender of Germany, Himmler wandered aimlessly about Bavaria until he was captured by the British. During his interrogation, he bit down on a cyanide capsule hidden in one of his teeth and died within seconds. Feared by many but respected by few, it can be argued that Himmler was more a creation of those who worked under him, like Heydrich, Pohl, Dietrich, Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Hausser, than by his own designs. Heinrich Himmler was survived by his wife and daughter Gudrun, who still lives in Germany and has long been suspected of connections with neo-Nazi groups. - Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Anny Ondra was a Polish-Czech-Austrian-German-French singer and a film and stage actress. As a child she lived in Prague, where her father was a colonel in the Austro-Hungarian army. After graduating from convent school in Prague, she studied to be an actress with Professor Bor. She was already a star in the Czech theater when, at age 16, the teenage beauty was discovered by the film industry.
From 1920--mostly under the direction of Karel Lamac--she became a major comedic star in Czech cinema, and in 1928 she conquered German cinema. Historically, she was Alfred Hitchcock's first blonde, appearing in his film Blackmail (1929), which was England's--and Hitchcock's--first talking film (Hitchcock, knowing that not all theaters supported talkies, also shot a silent version of the film). In 1930 in Germany she created, with the help of Karel Lamac, the Ondra-Lamac Film Society, which lasted till 1936. She was in Die vom Rummelplatz (1930) ("Those of the Sideshow") but the film, was lost and remains so to this day.
She played in German-, Czech- and French-language versions of all her movies, always as the leading lady. She became an international cinema superstar and one of the most beloved of German film stars. She appeared in more than 88 films. She retired from the industry in 1957 and lived in Hollenstedt in der Lüneburger Heide, Germany (near Hamburg), with her husband, boxing champion Max Schmeling, whom she married in 1933.
She died in Hollenstedt and will never be forgotten by her fans.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Inge Meysel was born on 30 May 1910 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for Gertrud Stranitzki (1966), Die Unverbesserlichen (1965) and Ida Rogalski (1969). She was married to John Olden and Helmuth Rudolph. She died on 10 July 2004 in Bullenhausen, Lower Saxony, Germany.- Actress
- Writer
Lucie Mannheim was born on 30 April 1899 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress and writer, known for The 39 Steps (1935), Der Ball (1931) and Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965). She was married to Marius Goring. She died on 18 July 1976 in Braunlage, Lower Saxony, Germany.- Actress
- Producer
Kristina Söderbaum was born on 5 October 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden. She was a professor's daughter from Djursholm, Stockholm, Sweden. After graduation she went to Paris to learn French and by chance got a role in the short film Hur behandlar du din hund? (1934). In 1935, she studied history of art in Berlin and attended acting classes. There she got to know her future husband Veit Harlan. During WWII Kristina Söderbaum played the main parts in popular Nazi propaganda movies under the direction of her husband Veit Harlan. Between 1939 and 1945 they made together the successful films Covered Tracks (1938), The Immortal Heart (1939), The Trip to Tilsit (1939), Die goldene Stadt (1942), Immensee - Ein deutsches Volkslied (1943), Opfergang (1944) and Burning Hearts (1945). The most infamous was Jud Süß (1940), a strong antisemitic propaganda film. Three years after "Jud Süss" she became an honoury student at Uppsala University, Sweden. Söderbaum said after the war that she regretted the films, but she never made a comeback as a popular actress. She didn't work until Harlan was allowed to direct again in 1950 and then appeared mostly in his films and on German TV until the 1990s. After Harlan's death in the 1964, she also established herself as a fashion photographer in Munich, Germany and wrote her memoirs, "Nichts bleibt immer so", in 1983. On 12 February 2001, she died in Hitzacker, Lower Saxony, Germany.- Oskar Schindler was born on 28 April 1908 in Zwittau, Moravia, Austria-Hungary [now Svitavy, Czech Republic]. He was married to Emilie Schindler. He died on 9 October 1974 in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Debonair Viennese thespian Siegfried Breuer specialized in portraying elegant, charming rogues and profligates. The son of a Wagnerian singer, he was trained from 1924 as an actor at Vienna's Academy for Music and the Performing Arts, studying alongside Paula Wessely and Käthe Gold. He performed on the stage in Berlin under the direction of Max Reinhardt in 'The Prince of Homburg', his first leading role. In 1935, he became a member of the ensemble cast of the Deutsches Theater.
From the late 1930's, Breuer was increasingly in demand for movie roles and began to develop his particular style of suave, but shifty, bon vivant. He gave his best performance in Gustav Ucicky's classic Der Postmeister (1940), as Minskij, and in Helmut Käutner's Romanze in Moll (1943). He was occasionally seen in operatic parts which required that special Viennese charm, as in Immortal Waltz (1939) and the remake of Die Fledermaus (1946). Carol Reed cast him (for added continental flavour) alongside several other noted Austrian players in The Third Man (1949). His part, as Popescu, was quite small but integral to the progression of the story. A chain smoker, Breuer died young -- aged just 47 -- from complications due to pneumonia. In that short life, he was married six times. His wives included the Austrian star actress Maria Andergast.- Rolf Hoppe was born on 6 December 1930 in Ellrich, Thuringia, Germany. He was an actor, known for Sardsch (1997), La piovra (1984) and Mephisto (1981). He was married to Friederike. He died on 14 November 2018 in Dresden, Saxony, Germany.
- Irma Grese was born on 7 October 1923 in Wrechen, Feldberger Seenlandschaft, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. She died on 13 December 1945 in Hameln, Lower Saxony, Germany.
- Margot Frank was born on 16 February 1926 in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. She died on 9 March 1945 in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Lower Saxony, Germany.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 - 4 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. His best-known works include the overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorio St. Paul, the oratorio Elijah, the overture The Hebrides, the mature Violin Concerto and the String Octet. The melody for the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is also his. Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Georg Tressler was born on 25 January 1917 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. He was a director and writer, known for Teenage Wolfpack (1956), Two Worlds (1958) and Der Weibsteufel (1966). He was married to Gudrun Krüger. He died on 6 January 2007 in Belgern, Saxony, Germany.- Composer
- Soundtrack
Martin Luther was born on 10 November 1483 in Eisleben, Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire [now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany]. He was a composer, known for Gangs of New York (2002), Alias Nick Beal (1949) and Mitt folk är icke ditt (1944). He was married to Katherine Von Bora. He died on 18 February 1546 in Eisleben, Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire [now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany].- Actress
- Soundtrack
Elisabeth Flickenschildt was born on 16 March 1905 in Blankenese, Hamburg, Germany. She was an actress, known for Das große Liebesspiel (1963), The False Step (1939) and The Indian Scarf (1963). She was married to Rolf Badenhausen. She died on 26 October 1977 in Stade, Lower Saxony, Germany.- Karl May was born on 25 February 1842 in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Kingdom of Saxony [now Saxony, Germany]. He was a writer, known for Auf den Trümmern des Paradieses (1920), Caravan of Death (1920) and Durch die Wüste (1936). He was married to Klara Plöhn and Emma Pollmer. He died on 30 March 1912 in Radebeul, Kingdom of Saxony [now Saxony], Germany.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Schmeling was seriously wounded in WW2 when he took part in the attack against Crete in 1941 as a parachutist and spent the rest of the war in a hospital. After the war he became the head of the Coca Cola company in Germany.- Günther Neutze was born on 5 March 1921 in Hanover, Germany. He was an actor, known for Dem Täter auf der Spur (1967), Das Kriminalgericht (1963) and Der Fall Sacco und Vanzetti (1963). He died on 26 February 1991 in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany.
- Klaus Fuchs was born on 29 December 1911 in Rüsselsheim, Hesse, Germany. He died on 28 January 1988 in Dresden, Saxony, Germany.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Dirk Dautzenberg was born on 7 October 1921 in Duisburg, Germany. He was an actor, known for Tag für Tag (1965), Michael Kramer (1965) and Die Kuba-Krise 1962 (1969). He died on 15 February 2009 in Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony, Germany.- Producer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Karl Dall was born on 1 February 1941 in Emden, Germany. He was a producer and actor, known for Quartett im Bett (1968), Sunshine Reggae auf Ibiza (1983) and Die ProSieben Märchenstunde (2006). He was married to Babara Dall. He died on 23 November 2020 in Lüneburg, Lower Saxony, Germany.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Karl Heinz Vosgerau was born on 16 August 1927 in Kiel, Germany. He was an actor, known for Wie ein Blitz (1970), Die Wächter (1986) and M.E.T.R.O. - Ein Team auf Leben und Tod (2006). He was married to Sabine. He died on 4 January 2021 in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, Germany.- Fredrich von Paulus was born in Germany in 1890 and joined the military academy in Berlin when he was around 18. He rose through the ranks from private to officer within 20 years. When World War II broke out in 1939, he was a member of the German general staff, a position he held during the 1940 invasion of France. In September 1940 he was appointed Quartermaster General of the General Staff. In 1942 he was promoted to Colonel-General and given command of the German 6th Army for the summer drive in the south of Russia, which started in June. Von Paulus was an experienced and capable staff officer, but only an average field commander who was intimidated by his superiors, and who fatally underestimated the Russian strength at Stalingrad, where his men were drawn into savage and costly street fighting by defending Russian troops. On November 19, 1942, the Soviets began a counteroffensive aimed at recapturing Stalingrad and trapping the 6th Army--about 270,000 strong--within the city. Von Paulus followed orders to stay put rather than to break out of the encirclement. For over two months he and his men were forced further and further back into the city by the rapidly increasing numbers of Soviet troops, while their supply lines were slowly being cut off, resulting in severe shortages of everything from food to clothes to ammunition. During the siege Adolf Hitler promoted von Paulus to General and announced that he was awarding him the Iron Cross for his stubborn defense. He also ordered von Paulus to fight to the last man and not to surrender one German soldier or piece of equipment to the Russians. On January 30, 1943, with the imminent defeat of the 6th Army at hand, Hitler promoted von Paulus to Field Marshal, stating that no German commander of that rank had ever surrendered. However, the very next day von Paulus surrendered the remnants of the once powerful 6th Army, now reduced to demoralized, starving, freezing, ill and half-clothed soldiers, to the Russians. He spent the remainder of the war under house arrest near Moscow while his men were marched off to harsh Soviet POW camps, from which only a very few survived. After the war ended von Paulus remained for a few years as a prisoner in the USSR until his release in 1947. Prior to his release he was brought to Germany to testify in the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, and gave testimony against many of the Nazi officials on trial there. After his release from Russian custody von Paulus, by now sympathetic to communism, retired to East Germany, where he died in 1957.