Steffie Spira

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Steffie Spira on November 4, 1989 on Alexanderplatz
Memorial plaque on Bonner Strasse 9 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf

Steffie Spira (actually Stephanie Spira , married Stephanie Spira-Ruschin , born June 2, 1908 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; died May 10, 1995 in Berlin ) was an actress . As a folk actress, she decisively shaped the socialist theater culture of the GDR . Spira played in plays by Bertolt Brecht , Gerhart Hauptmann and Nikolai Wassiljewitsch Gogol and was involved in film and television.

biography

Steffie Spira was the daughter of the actor couple Lotte and Fritz Spira . In 1924 she attended drama school and received her first engagement in 1925 . In 1926 she worked for the actors' union. From 1928 Spira played at the Berliner Volksbühne . In 1931 she joined the KPD , where she co-founded the theater troupe in 1931 . She was married to the director Günter Ruschin from 1931 . In 1933 she emigrated to Switzerland . In 14 years of exile there was theater work in Paris and the cabaret “Die Laterne” as well as Brecht world premieres. After separating from her husband, she was imprisoned in La Roquette prison and the Camp de Rieucros women's camp , from where the family fled to Mexico , where they met Anna Seghers again . In Mexico she was involved in the Heinrich Heine Club , among other things .

In 1947 she returned to Germany on a Soviet freighter and from 1948 played at the Deutsches Theater under Wolfgang Langhoff , mainly in the Volksbühne in many large roles (for example, mother Wolffen in " Der Biberpelz " by Gerhart Hauptmann ) and at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm . In the first Ernst Thälmann film Ernst Thälmann - Son of His Class (1954, directed by Kurt Maetzig ), which reflects the SED's official image of history shortly before the de-Stalinization, she plays Clara Zetkin .

On November 4, 1989, she held on Berlin's Alexanderplatz during the Alexanderplatz demonstration a speech to about half a million people and spoke out against the arrogance of power and for the freedom of their descendants: "I wish my great-grandchildren to grow up without a flag roll call , without civics and that no blue shirts with torches pass the high people! "

Steffie Spira died at the age of 86. Her grave is in the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin. Her son Thomas Ruschin works as a dubbing director . Her sister Camilla Spira was also an actress.

Filmography (selection)

Radio plays

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Steffie Spira  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steffie Spira on zeitzeugen-tv.com ( memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zeitzeugen-tv.com
  2. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Steffie Spira
personal data
SURNAME Spira, Steffie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spira-Ruschin, Stephanie; Spira, Stephanie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actress
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1995
Place of death Berlin