Bruno Ganz

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Bruno Ganz (2011)

Bruno Ganz (born March 22, 1941 in Zurich ; † February 16, 2019 in Wädenswil ) was an internationally active Swiss actor . Ganz was one of the greatest theater and film actors in German-speaking countries and was the bearer of the Iffland-Ring from 1996 until his death . After his first theater engagements, he met Peter Stein, a director in Bremen , with whom he worked for a long time. The West Berlin Schaubühne , co-founded by Ganz , became the linchpin of European theater life in the 1970s. There, Ganz played the title role in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt and in Kleist’s Dream of Prince Homburg . In the mid-1970s he became one of the most important actors in Young German Cinema . The highlights of his career of over 100 films were his portrayals of the angel Damiel in Der Himmel über Berlin and those of the dictator Adolf Hitler in Der Untergang , with which he became known to a large international audience.

Life

Bruno Ganz was born the son of a Swiss factory worker and a northern Italian woman in Zurich-Seebach and grew up there with his brother Renzo, born in 1947. He discovered acting for himself when he was still a schoolboy, during his first stage appearance in confirmation class. A lighting technician friend of the Zürcher Schauspielhaus gave him access to the theater performances. He left high school shortly before graduating from high school . The worried mother had already got him an apprenticeship contract with a master painter. However, after a short stay in Paris, he completed evening courses at the Zurich stage studio (now the Hochschule der Künste ) and, after passing the entrance exam, sporadically attended classes at the drama school. He also worked as a bookseller and did his military service at a recruit school as a paramedic .

At the age of 19 he played his first film role, the valet in The Gentleman with the Black Melon (1960). In 1961 he played a jazz fan in Chikita . A year later, Ganz went to West Germany and played at the Junge Theater Göttingen , from 1964 to 1969 at the Theater am Goetheplatz in Bremen under the direction of Kurt Hübner . Here he met Peter Zadek and in 1967 Peter Stein . With the latter he was committed to the Schauspielhaus Zürich in 1969 ; the theater troupe was shortly expelled, which led to the founding of Stein's West Berlin Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer . The Schaubühne ensemble, with its radically democratic artistic production conditions , changed the theater scene. Ganz worked with the innovative directors of his time, such as Claus Peymann , Klaus-Michael Grüber , Luc Bondy , Dieter Dorn , and the ensemble developed into the most famous German theater.

The London Times mentioned the aspiring actor for the first time in a review of the performance of Wedekind's Spring Awakening at London's Aldwych Theater in 1965. Quite played the role of Moritz Stiefel and is described as follows: «Bruno Ganz 'Moritz, with a loosely tied tie and loose gestures, acts more like the rebel against the system than its victim. " Ganz played his first leading role in a movie in Der soft Lauf by Haro Senft (1928–2016), one of the initiators of the film policy initiative “ Oberhausen Manifest ”, which was shot in 1966/1967 in Munich and Prague. It is one of the first six feature films to be funded by the Kuratorium Junge deutscher Film in 1965 as a result of the demands of the Oberhausen Manifesto .

In 1972 Ganz made theater history in the lead role of Kleist's drama Traum vom Prinzen Homburg , the German prince's role par excellence. Peter Stein's adaptation and the performance with Jutta Lampe , Otto Sander , Peter Fitz and Botho Strauss as dramaturgical collaborators was a biographical staging that ended with a pantomime.

In 1972 he played for the first time at the Salzburg Festival under Peymann's direction in the world premiere of Thomas Bernhard's The Ignorant and the Mad . He was named “Actor of the Year” for this performance. He remained on friendly terms with Bernhard until his death in 1989; Bernhard's piece Die Jagdgesellschaft contains the dedication “For Bruno Ganz, who else”. The most intensive collaboration at the theater has developed since the early 1970s with the director Klaus Michael Grüber. Bruno Ganz returned to Salzburg in 1986 with the world premiere of Prometheus, captivated by Aeschylus (translation by Peter Handke ) in Grüber's direction.

Richard Eder of the New York Times mentioned Ganz for the first time in 1976, in connection with an interview with French film director Éric Rohmer on the occasion of the performance of the Marquise von O. in New York in 1976. Rohmer said that he had hired “German stage actors” for the film because he wanted grand gestures that are less common with film actors. He asked the actors to examine the erotic painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard Le Verrou from 1777 . «Bruno Ganz watched it for a smooth half hour. A very conscientious actor. "

He achieved his international breakthrough in 1977 with Wim Wenders The American Friend at the side of Dennis Hopper . In the film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel , he plays a terminally ill Hamburg-based picture frame maker who is supposed to commit murders against payment for an unscrupulous American so that his wife and child are financially secure after his death. In 1987 Ganz played the angel Damiel in Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin at the side of Otto Sander and Solveig Dommartin , who renounced his immortality out of affection for the people. It was a script penned by Peter Handke , with music by Nick Cave , who can be seen in the film himself during a live performance. Ganz played the angel Damiel for Wenders a second time in the continuation of the story: Far away, so close! (1993).

Bruno Ganz at the German Film Festival Tokyo, June 2005

In 2000 he played the sad waiter in the award-winning Italian comedy Bread and Tulips by Silvio Soldini . In the same year, Ganz impressed as Faust in Peter Stein's unabridged, 21-hour staging of Goethe's Faust I and Faust II , which premiered at the Expo 2000 in Hanover before a tour to Berlin and Vienna was to take place. Ganz was injured so badly in a rehearsal accident that he couldn't play the premiere. The role took a lot from him physically and mentally. In 2001 he received the Berlin Theater Prize for this. In 2003 he made his debut at the Burgtheater in Vienna under Grübers direction in Oedipus auf Kolonos des Sophokles (set and costumes: Anselm Kiefer ; translation from ancient Greek: Peter Handke). In 2004, his impersonation of the dictator Adolf Hitler in Der Untergang von Oliver Hirschbiegel was, in his own words, a turning point in his artistic work and was mostly described by the press as outstanding.

After that, Ganz often turned to Switzerland: In Vitus (2005) by the author and filmmaker Fredi M. Murer , he played the grandfather of a gifted boy who fights against his overambitious mother. The pianist Teo Gheorghiu played the child prodigy Vitus at the age of 12. In the political satire Der große Kater (2010), Ganz held the highest office in his home country and, alongside Marie Bäumer and Ulrich Tukur, played the Federal President of Switzerland , who is supposed to be ousted from office by an intrigue. In 2015, Ganz played the Alpöhi in the children's film Heidi . At the time, Ganz declared: “I'm Swiss, I'm that age, I have to do this. Otherwise I would have regretted it forever. " In addition to Swiss German and German, Ganz also spoke fluent French and Italian. After a falling out with Peymann, Ganz did not play with the Berliner Ensemble in Botho Strauss ' play Desecration after Shakespeare , as expected , but only in 2006 at the Schauspielhaus Bochum under the direction of Elmar Goerden .

In 2008 he played the BKA President Horst Herold in the Der Baader Meinhof complex produced by Eichinger . He saw the story of the film in close connection with his own life. For a long time he was a sympathizer of the extra-parliamentary left , including Ulrike Meinhof , but quickly distanced himself from the acts of violence committed by the RAF since the mid-1970s.

From 2010 to 2013 Bruno Ganz was President of the German Film Academy together with Iris Berben .

In 2017, Ganz embodied the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud in Der Trafikant and the 90-year-old GDR functionary Wilhelm Powileit shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in the film adaptation of the Eugen Ruge novel In times of waning light .

Bruno Ganz had been married to Sabine Ganz since 1965. The couple lived largely separately and had a son who went blind at the age of four. Bruno Ganz lived for the last few years in Au , municipality of Wädenswil not far from the Au peninsula on the left bank of Lake Zurich, which he loved , had an apartment in Venice and lived in Berlin for a long time . His longtime partner was the theater photographer Ruth Walz .

In the summer of 2018, Ganz was supposed to play the narrator in Mozart's Magic Flute at the Salzburg Festival , but that never happened. He had to stop the samples on medical advice. He died on February 16, 2019 at the age of 77 years at home in the Zurich Wädenswil-Au on colon cancer . The memorial service for Ganz took place on March 20, 2019 in the Fraumünster in Zurich, due to the great sympathy of the population, the memorial service was also transferred to the neighboring church of St. Peter . The urn burial took place at the Rehalp cemetery in the Zurich district of Riesbach , where Bruno Ganz's parents and brother are also buried.

Awards

In February 1996 the actor Josef Meinrad Bruno Ganz bequeathed the Iffland-Ring , an award that has been given for life to the "most important and worthy stage artist in German-speaking theater" for over 100 years. In October 2014 it became known that Ganz had determined Gert Voss as his successor in his will, but he died in July 2014.

As it became known in March 2019, the German actor Jens Harzer is his successor as the bearer of the Iffland-Ring , by order of Bruno Ganz .

On 2 March 2006 was full in Vienna by the Austrian President Heinz Fischer , the Austrian Medal for Science and Art presents. With that, Ganz was accepted into the Austrian Curia for Art.

Further awards

Bruno Ganz's star on the Boulevard der Stars in Berlin

plant

Theater works (selection)

year title author role Director theatre
1965 The unadvised after Thomas Valentin Jochen Rull Kurt Huebner Bremen theater
1965 Spring awakening Frank Wedekind Moritz boots Peter Zadek Bremen theater
1965 Hamlet William Shakespeare Hamlet Kurt Huebner Bremen theater
1966 The robbers Friedrich Schiller Franz Moor Peter Zadek Bremen theater
1966 Macbeth William Shakespeare Macbeth Kurt Huebner Bremen theater
1967 Measure for measure William Shakespeare duke Peter Zadek Bremen theater
1968 In the thicket of the cities Bertolt Brecht George Garga Peter Stein Munich Kammerspiele
1969 cabal and Love Friedrich Schiller worm Peter Stein Bremen theater
1969 Torquato Tasso Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Torquato Tasso Peter Stein Bremen theater
1970 The mother Bertolt Brecht Wolfgang Schwiedrzik / Frank-Patrick Steckel / Peter Stein Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer
1971 Peer Gynt Henrik Ibsen Peer # 3 and # 8 Peter Stein Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer
1971 The ride across Lake Constance Peter Handke Heinrich George Claus Peymann / Wolfgang Wiens Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer
1972 Tales from the Vienna Woods Ödön from Horváth Oscar Klaus Michael Grüber Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer
1972 The ignorant and the madman Thomas Bernhard doctor Claus Peymann Salzburg Festival , State Theater
1972 Kleist's dream of Prince Homburg after Heinrich von Kleist Prince of Homburg Peter Stein Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer
1973 The Bacchae Euripides Pentheus Klaus Michael Grüber Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer
1973 Summer guests Maxim Gorky Shalimov Peter Stein Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer
1975 Death of Empedocles after Friedrich Hölderlin Empedocles Klaus Michael Grüber Schaubühne on Halleschen Ufer
1982 Hamlet William Shakespeare Hamlet Klaus Michael Grüber Schaubühne on Lehniner Platz
1984 The park Botho Strauss Oberon Peter Stein Schaubühne on Lehniner Platz
1986 Prometheus, bound Aeschylus , translated by Peter Handke Prometheus Klaus Michael Grüber Salzburg Festival, Felsenreitschule
1986 The tour guide Botho Strauss Teacher Luc Bondy Schaubühne on Lehniner Platz
1987 The misanthrope Molière Alceste Luc Bondy Hebbel Theater Berlin
1993 Coriolanus William Shakespeare Coriolanus Deborah Warner Salzburg Festival, Felsenreitschule
1996 Ithaca Botho Strauss Odysseus Dieter Dorn Munich Kammerspiele
2000 Faust I u. II Johann Wolfgang von Goethe fist Peter Stein Expo 2000 Hanover
2003 Oedipus on Colonus Sophocles , translated by Peter Handke Oedipus Klaus Michael Grüber Burgtheater , Vienna
2006 desecration Botho Strauss Titus Andronicus Elmar Goerden Schauspielhaus Bochum
2012 Le Retour Harold Pinter Max Luc Bondy Théâtre Odéon Paris

Filmography

year title Remarks
1960 The gentleman with the black bowler hat Director: Karl Suter
1961 Chikita Director: Karl Suter
1962 It roof over your head Director: Kurt Früh
1967 The gentle run Director: Haro Senft
1976 The Marquise of O. (La Marquise d'O.) Director: Éric Rohmer
1976 The wild duck Director: Hans W. Geißendörfer
1976 In the spotlight (Lumière) Script and direction: Jeanne Moreau
1976 Summer guests Script: Botho Strauss , director: Peter Stein
1977 The American friend Script and direction: Wim Wenders
1977 The left-handed woman Script and direction: Peter Handke
1978 Story of a love Script and direction: Dagmar Damek
1978 The Boys from Brazil Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
1978 Black and white like days and nights Director: Wolfgang Petersen
1978 Knife in the head Director: Reinhard Hauff
1979 Nosferatu - Phantom of the Night Director: Werner Herzog
1979 Return to the Beloved (Le retour à la bien-aimée) Directed by Jean-François Adam
1980 5 percent risk (5% de risque) Director: Jean Pourtalé
1980 The inventor Director: Kurt Gloor
1980 The Lady of the Camellias (La dame aux camélias) Director: Mauro Bolognini
1980 Denial (La Provinciale) Director: Claude Goretta
1981 Something becomes visible Director: Harun Farocki
1981 Oggetti Smarriti Director: Giuseppe Bertolucci
1981 The fake (Le faussaire) Director: Volker Schlöndorff
1982 Memory - A film for Curt Bois and Bernhard Minetti Direction and script: Bruno Ganz
1982 war and peace Directors: Alexander Kluge , Volker Schlöndorff, Stefan Aust , Axel Engstfeld
1983 In the white city (Dans la ville blanche) Director: Alain Tanner
1983 Florida killer Script and direction: Klaus Schaffhauser
1983 System without shadow Director: Rudolf Thome
1985 The ice cream parlor (De IJssalon) Director: Dimitri Frenkel Frank
1986 The commuter Director: Bernhard Giger
1986 Fathers and sons four-part, director: Bernhard Sinkel
1987 The sky over Berlin Director: Wim Wenders
1988 An almost anonymous relationship (strapless) Directed by David Hare
1988 The sky is far (Un amore di donna) Director: Nelo Risi
1988 Defense speech of Judas Director: Walter Jens
1989 Bank card Director: Villi Hermann
1989 Architecture of Downfall (Undergangens arkitektur) Director: Peter Cohen - Bruno Ganz as narrator in the German version
1990 Tassilo - a case in itself six-part, directed by Hajo Gies
1990 Sazka - The Bet (Sazka) Director: Martin Walz
1991 success Director: Franz Seitz
1991 La Domenica specialmente Director: Giuseppe Bertolucci
1991 Prague (Prague) Director: Ian Sellar
1991 Children of Nature - A Journey (Börn natturunna) Director: Friðrik Þór Friðriksson
1991 Last days at Chez Nous (The Last Days of Chez Nous) Directed by Gillian Armstrong
1993 Fire night Director: Markus Fischer
1993 far away, so Close! Director: Wim Wenders
1993 Asmara Director: Paolo Poloni
1994 The absence (L'absence) Script and direction: Peter Handke
1994 Bright day Director: Andre Nitzschke
1995 A judge in fear Director: Josef Rödl
1995 Il Grande Fausto Director: Alberto Sironi
1996 Deadly silence Director: Bernd Böhlich
1996 Crime scene: shadow world Director: Josef Rödl
1997 Saint-Ex Directed by Anand Tucker
1998 Towards the end of the night Director: Oliver Storz
1998 Eternity and a day (Mia eoniotita ke mia mera) Director: Theo Angelopoulos
2000 WhoFearWolf Director: Clemens Klopfenstein
2000 Bread and Tulips (Pane e Tulipani) Director: Silvio Soldini
2001 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust TV version of Peter Stein 's production of Faust
2002 Epstein's night Director: Urs Egger
2002 Bruno Ganz - Behind Me Director: Norbert Wiedmer
2003 Luther Director: Eric Till
2004 The Manchurian Candidate (The Manchurian Candidate) Director: Jonathan Demme
2004 The downfall Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
2006 Do not be afraid! - The life of Pope John Paul II Director: Jeff Bleckner
2006 Vitus Director: Fredi M. Murer
2006 Ode to Joy (Baruto no gakuen) Director: Masanobu Deme
2007 Youth Without Youth (Youth Without Youth) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
2008 A strong finish Director: Rainer Kaufmann
2008 The Baader Meinhof Complex Director: Uli Edel
2008 The Dust of Time Director: Theo Angelopoulos
2008 Copacabana Director: Xaver Schwarzenberger
2008 The Reader Directed by Stephen Daldry
2009 Giulia's disappearance Director: Christoph Schaub
2010 The big hangover Director: Wolfgang Panzer
2010 The end is my beginning Director: Jo Baier
2011 Rich colors against black Director: Sophie Heldman
2011 loaf Director: Ahmet Taş
2011 Unknown Identity (Unknown) Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
2011 Wild will (Sport de filles) Director: Patricia Mazuy
2013 Night Train to Lisbon (Night Train to Lisbon) Directed by Bille August
2013 Michael Kohlhaas Director: Arnaud des Pallières
2013 The Counselor Director: Ridley Scott
2014 One after the other Director: Hans Petter Moland
2015 Remember Directed by Atom Egoyan
2015 Heidi Director: Alain Gsponer
2016 A Jew as an example Director: Jacob Berger
2017 The party Directed by Sally Potter
2017 In times of waning light Director: Matti Geschonneck
2018 The House That Jack Built Director: Lars von Trier
2018 The tobacconist Director: Nikolaus Leytner
2018 Fortuna Directed by Germinal Roaux
2018 Guitars don't grow on trees Director: Luc Quelin - Bruno Ganz as the narrator
2019 A hidden life (A Hidden Life) Directed by Terrence Malick
2019 The Witness Director: Mitko Panov

Radio plays

Audio book

Film portraits

  • From Tasso to the crime scene : the actor Bruno Ganz. Documentary, Germany, 1997, director: Helmut Harald Fischer, production: WDR , Claus Spahn .
  • Bruno Ganz - Actor - Stages of a Career. (Alternative title: Bruno Ganz - A European actor. ) Documentary film, Switzerland, Germany, France, 2004, 49:38 min., Script and director: Norbert Wiedmer , production: PS Film, Biograph Film, SRG SSR , arte , summary by ARD and online video from SRF .
    A personal, nocturnal conversation with Bruno Ganz in his Zurich apartment, supplemented with archive footage and excerpts from films and theater performances.

literature

Web links

Commons : Bruno Ganz  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Urs Bühler: Whether angel or dictator: Bruno Ganz exposed the all too human core of his characters. Obituary in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of February 16, 2019, accessed on March 10, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b Michel Imhof: Daniel Rohr experienced the last minutes of the acting legend: "Bruno Ganz died in the presence of his partner and his son". In: Blick.ch of February 16, 2019, accessed on March 3, 2019.
  3. ↑ Cosima Lutz: Obituary for Bruno Ganz - Now he looks on forever from above. In: Berliner Morgenpost , February 16, 2019.
  4. ↑ Stefan Zweifel: How does the I speak? In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , March 19, 2011, accessed on February 17, 2019.
  5. ↑ Irving Wardle: 'Spring awakening' an unexploded bomb. In: The New York Times , April 25, 1967, p. 6.
  6. ^ Hajo Kurzenberger: Kleist's dream of Prince Homburg. About Peter Stein's production at the Berlin Schaubühne. In: Spirit and Sign. Festschrift for Arthur Henkel. Edited by Herbert Anton, Bernhard Gajek, Peter Pfaff. Winter, Heidelberg 1977, pp. 235-240.
  7. ↑ Wolf Dieter Hellberg: Prince Friedrich von Homburg: Reclam XL - Text and Context. Reclam Publishing House, 2015.
  8. ^ Richard Eder: Rohmer's 'Marquise' Is Talk in Action . In: The New York Times . October 22, 1976, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed February 16, 2019]).
  9. ↑ SpotOn: Bruno Ganz: The best Almöhi of all time. In: Focus Online . December 10, 2015, accessed January 7, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Bruno Ganz celebrates theater comeback in Paris . In: Focus Online , October 19, 2012, accessed February 18, 2019.
  11. ↑ Dirk Kurbjuweit : Bruno Ganz in the RAF film: The Ex-Sympathizer. In: Spiegel Online . September 10, 2008, accessed January 7, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Conradin Knabenhans: “Ganz loved the Au peninsula” , Zürichsee-Zeitung , February 17, 2019.
  13. ↑ Peer Teuwsen , Luzi Bernet: Actor Bruno Ganz in conversation: “Zurich is the city that is closest to my heart”. In: NZZ Online . November 7, 2015, accessed January 7, 2017 .
  14. ↑ The grave of Bruno Ganz. In: knerger.de. Klaus Nerger, accessed April 4, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Almuth Spiegler: Iffland-Ring: Voss had chosen Ganz as his successor. In: diepresse.com. October 2, 2014, accessed January 7, 2017 .
  16. ^ Wolfgang Litzenburger: Carl-Zuckmayer-Medal for Bruno Ganz. In: theaterfreunde-mainz.de. December 18, 2014, accessed January 7, 2017 .
  17. ^ Iffland-Ring goes to German actor Jens Harzer . In: kleinezeitung.at, March 22, 2019, accessed on March 22, 2019.
  18. ↑ ii: Theater and film career honored: Bruno Ganz receives art award from the city of Zurich. In: NZZ Online. June 26, 2006, accessed January 7, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Information from the Federal President's Office.
  20. ↑ Golden Camera for Bruno Ganz and Diane Keaton. In: tz.de. January 24, 2014, accessed January 7, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Bruno Ganz honored with the Carl Zuckmayer Medal. In: dw.de. January 18, 2015, accessed January 7, 2017 .
  22. ↑ Gena Teodosievska: Special Award “Golden Camera 300” for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema Art ( Memento from September 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Manaki Brothers Film Festival .
  23. ↑ Honorary award for Bruno Ganz. In: Bayerischer Rundfunk . December 15, 2012.
  24. ↑ In times of waning light. In: film starts . Retrieved May 26, 2017.
  25. ↑ Guitars don't grow on trees. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Quite, Bruno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH 16th February 2019
Place of death Waedenswil