Marianne Hoppe
Born in Rostock, Hoppe became a leading lady of stage and films in Germany. She was born into a wealthy landowning family and was initially privately educated on her father's private estate. Later she attended school in Berlin and in Weimar, where she began to attend theatre.[1]
Hoppe first performed at 17 as a member of Berlin's Deutsches Theater under director Max Reinhardt. In 1935 she was hired by the controversial German actor and Director of the Prussian State Theatre under the Third Reich, Gustav Gründgens. They were married from 1936-46, until their divorce. Speaking years after the marriage had ended Hoppe stated, "He was my love, but never my great love, that was work."[1]
One of the characters in the film Mephisto was reportedly based on her. Hoppe made no secret of her contacts with the Nazi elite in the 1930s/40s, including being invited to dinner by Hitler.[2] Her role in Der Schimmelreiter (The Rider of the White Horse, 1934) made her famous almost overnight, while her "Aryan" face made her a darling of the Nazi elite.[1] Later Hoppe would label this period of her life as "the black page in my golden book".[1]
During her time acting at the home of the Prussian State Theatre, the Schauspielhaus, Hoppe developed her analytical approach to acting, which she stated consisted in her "taking apart every sentence" and giving the use of language a brilliance. This method was to be associated with Hoppe throughout her working life.[1] In 1946 her only child, Benedikt Johann Percy Gründgens, was born.
Four years later after her divorce from Gründgens, Hoppe had a great success as Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, and increasingly played avant-garde roles, written by authors such as Heiner Muller (Quartett, 1994) and Thomas Bernhard, who became her partner in private life as well. She became a favourite of the young and iconoclastic directors Claus Peymann, Robert Wilson and Frank Castorf.
Hoppe died in Siegsdorf, Bavaria, in 2002 from natural causes, aged 93. "German theater has lost its queen", said Claus Peymann of the Berliner Ensemble, whose theatre featured Hoppe's last performance, in Bertolt Brecht's Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, in December 1997.[2] In one of her last interviews Hoppe stated, "I have a go at happiness every day. That takes discipline, a virtue every halfway decent actor should have."
Acted in
Hitler's Hollywood
2017
as Various Roles (archive footage)
The Queen – Marianne Hoppe
2000
Tassilo - Ein Fall für sich
1991
as Maximiliane
Der Tod kam als Freund
1991
as Frau Weinstein
Geschichten hinterm Deich
1989
Heldenplatz
1989
as Hedwig Schuster
Schloß Königswald
1988
as Gräfin Hohenlohe
Bei Thea
1988
as Thea Ammer
Francesca
1987
as Herself
Kir Royal
1986
as Claire Maetzig
Er-Götz-liches
1984
as Zweite Frau Professor
Marianne and Sophie
1983
as Marianne
Die Baronin - Fontane machte sie unsterblich
1981
as Elisabeth v. Ardenne
Der Richter
1981
as Mutter
Bayerischer Filmpreis
1979
as Self
Die Magermilchbande
1979
as Tante Doda
Der Alte
1977
as Johanna Martinek
Der Alte
1977
as Charlotte Steinburger
Wrong Move
1975
as Mother
Heiratskandidaten
1975
as Tante Thea
Im Hause des Kommerzienrates
1975
as Präsidentin
Scene of the Crime
1970
as Zeugin
Der Kommissar
1969
as Johanna Blago
Der Kommissar
1969
as Lotte Boszilke
Der Kommissar
1969
as Amalie Schöndorf
Der Kommissar
1969
as Charlotte Echte
Tag für Tag
1969
as Mrs. Bryant
König Richard II
1968
as Herzogin von Gloster
Der Tod läuft hinterher
1967
as Madame Brassac
Andere Zeiten - andere Sitten
1967
as Self
Die Mission
1967
as Selma Selig
Briefe nach Luzern
1966
as Madame Hunter
A Winter's Tale
1965
as Die Zeit
Das Leben des Horace A.W. Tabor - Ein Stück aus den Tagen der letzten Könige
1965
as Augusta
Ten Little Indians
1965
as Elsa Grohmann
Conquerors of Arkansas
1964
as Mrs. Brendel
Harlekinade
1964
as Edna Selby
Die Teilnahme
1964
as Patricia Taylor
König Ödipus
1963
as Iokasta
Treasure of Silver Lake
1962
as Mrs. Butler
Rose Bernd
1962
as Henriette Flamm
Der Walzer der Toreros
1962
as Generalin
The Strange Countess
1961
as Mary Pinder, verw. Moron
13 Little Donkeys and the Sun Court
1958
as Martha Krapp
Der Mann meines Lebens
1954
as Helga Dargatter
Deutscher Filmpreis
1951
as Self
Nur eine Nacht
1950
as die Frau
Schicksal aus zweiter Hand
1949
as Irene Scholz
Das verlorene Gesicht
1948
as Johanna Stegen alias Luscha
Bambi Awards
1948
as Self
Das Leben geht weiter
1945
as Lenore Carius
Ich brauche Dich
1944
as Julia Bach
Romance in a Minor Key
1943
as Madeleine
Stimme des Herzens
1942
as Felicitas Iversen
Goodbye, Franziska
1941
as Franziska Tiemann
Kongo-Express
1939
as Renate Brinkmann
Der Schritt vom Wege
1939
as Effi Briest
Gabriele eins, zwei, drei
1937
as Gabriele Brodersen
Love in Stunt Flying
1937
as Mabel Atkinson
The Sovereign
1937
as Inken Peters
Eine Frau ohne Bedeutung
1936
as Hester
When the Cock Crows
1936
as Marie
Anschlag auf Schweda
1935
as Regine Kessler
Die Werft zum Grauen Hecht
1935
as Käthe Liebenow
Oberwachtmeister Schwenke
1935
as Maria Schönborn, Verkäuferin im Blumenhaus Floris
Alles hört auf mein Kommando
1935
as Hella Bergson
Black Fighter Johanna
1934
as Johanna Luerssen
Trouble with Jolanthe
1934
as Anna
The Rider on the White Horse
1934
as Elke Volkerts
Heideschulmeister Uwe Karsten
1933
as Ursula Diewen
The Judas of Tyrol
1933
as Josefa