Walter Sittler

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Walter Sittler, 2015

Walter Sittler (born December 5, 1952 in Chicago , Illinois ) is a German actor and film producer .

Life

As the youngest of eight children of the German -born American literature professor Edward Vieth Sittler and his wife Margret Sittler, a German teacher and translator, he came to Germany with his family in 1958. He grew up mainly in boarding schools and, among other things , attended the Schloss Salem school for three years on a scholarship , where his mother was the deputy headmistress.

Initially he was interested in medicine as a subject, but the numerus clausus and his experience as a nurse prevented him from studying. After school, he signed up for two years as a soldier in the German Armed Forces , after which he lived and worked for a year with his sister in Lima . He is also a US citizen due to his birth in the USA . In 1985 Sittler married the documentary film director Sigrid Klausmann , who at the time worked as a teacher for sports and gymnastics at several schools and also worked as a teacher for modern dance and as a choreographer .

He has lived in Stuttgart-Möhringen with his wife since 1988 . They have three grown children. Her son Benedikt works in London for the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood .

Acting career

Sittler with Aglaia Szyszkowitz , 2012

During a visit to the Falckenberg School for Drama in Munich , he began to be interested in the subject. He began studying there and made his debut at the Mannheim National Theater in 1981 . In 1988 he moved to the State Theater Stuttgart , where he was engaged until 1995. Since 2006 Sittler has been on tour with various solo stage programs by and about Erich Kästner : When I was a little boy, about Erich Kästner's childhood in Dresden , cheers, uncle Erich! as well as Christmas with Kästner .

He became known to a larger audience from television in the mid-1990s, especially alongside Mariele Millowitsch in the series girl friends and in the sitcom Nikola . Sittler appears in numerous other television films and series. In 2004 he played in the US comedy Eurotrip .

With his wife, who had switched to documentary film, Sittler founded the film production company Schneegans productions in 1997 . So far they have shot and produced four documentaries together .

On November 19, 2010, his second Erich Kästner program, Vom Kleinmaleins des Seins, premiered in the Transparent Factory in Dresden. After an homage as a reading evening with music for the cabaret artist Dieter Hildebrandt , Ich bin noch da (2015), another homage to the recently deceased publicist Roger Willemsen followed at the end of 2017 . Here Sittler was accompanied by the violinist Franziska Hölscher and the pianist Marianna Shirinyan. Willemsen had chosen the lyrics and the music on the subject of landscapes .

Social and political engagement

At the suggestion of the SPD Baden-Württemberg, Walter Sittler was a member of the 13th and 14th Federal Assemblies , which elected the Federal President on May 23, 2009 and June 30, 2010, respectively .

Since February 2010 he has been the official sponsor of the Bethel Children's Hospice .

He has been supporting the SOS Children's Villages for many years . In 2006 he took part in the “6 Villages for 2006” campaign with his winnings from Wer wird Millionär? supported. He is the godfather of the SOS Children's Village in Saint Petersburg .

Together with his wife, he is preparing the documentary 199 Little Heroes , which is to accompany children from all over the world on their way to school. However, the public service broadcasters showed little interest in the subject, so that the couple was forced to a. to continue financing the project through crowdfunding and the support of Senta Berger . Tabloid reports of alleged bankruptcy were found to be false. The unclear funding, however, encouraged the decision not to focus on the way to school but on the school children themselves. The first feature film in this long-term project is called Not without us! and introduces 16 children in detail. This documentary won three film awards, including the 2016 Golden Sparrow .

Since autumn 2009 he has been involved in the public protest against the " Stuttgart 21 " train station project . Sittler's protest against “Stuttgart 21” is based on the assumption that the cause of the rail project was not an improvement in the train connections, but primarily the real estate that is to be built on the vacated rail site.

His commitment was sharply criticized by the then CDU Secretary General Thomas Strobl . He assumed Sittler “lack of understanding of democracy” due to his father's membership in the NSDAP . He described Sittler as "someone who in truth has nothing to do with our democracy". Sittler replied that he had made no secret of his father's Nazi past and that he had very openly discussed this in a ZDF documentary. After public outrage about Strobl's statements, the latter apologized a little later to Sittler.

effect

After the two television series girl friends and Nikola ran out in the mid-2000s, Sittler began to present musically accompanied solo tours by critical and at the same time popular German authors such as Erich Kästner , Dieter Hildebrandt and Roger Willemsen . This turned away from the image of the unreservedly popular popular figure. Since then, he has not been given any role offers in which he could portray purely positive role figures.

Filmography (selection)

actor

producer

  • 2007: You will still fly! ( Documentation )
  • 2009: Lisette and her children (documentation)
  • 2010: Thomas Hitzlsperger and the Township Children (documentation)
  • 2017: not without us! (Documentation)

speaker

Publications

Awards

Films about Sittler

  • On the trail of my ancestors. Documentary, Germany, 2007, 43:30 min., Script and director: Dagmar Wittmers , production: ZDF , series: On the trail of my ancestors , first broadcast: July 25, 2007 on ZDF, summary by fernsehserien.de , transcript:.
  • Walter Sittler - One from here. Documentary, Germany, 2017, 44 min., Script and director: Ulrike Gehring, production: screen art, SWR , series: Eine von hier , first broadcast: December 2, 2017 on SWR TV , synopsis by ARD , online video , available until December 8, 2018.

Web links

Commons : Walter Sittler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Walter Sittler  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d On the trail of my ancestors. First broadcast: ZDF , July 25, 2007. In: liljan98.de. Retrieved October 7, 2016 ( transcript with film photos).
  2. ^ Sigrid Klausmann. Biography. ( Memento from January 15, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) on filmportal.de, accessed on January 14, 2018.
  3. ↑ Michael Niehus: Walter and Sigrid Sittler. Children from the house, what will become of us now? In: picture taken on Sunday March 26, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b Series of couples “Relatively” (6): Walter Sittler and Sigrid Klausmann. “We have similar attitudes.” At: stuttgarter-zeitung.de , March 6, 2017
  5. ↑ Armin Friedl: Walter Sittler: "The most beautiful thing in my theater life". In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten , December 20, 2013, interview with Sittler.
  6. ↑ Walter Sittler on stage and on TV | Upcoming events. In: Walter Sittler. Retrieved January 7, 2020 .
  7. ↑ a b Walter Sittler: “We are completely broke!” At: presseportal.de , October 21, 2015.
  8. ↑ Walter Sittler fills the Transparent Factory as Erich Kästner . At: auto-medienportal.net , November 21, 2010.
  9. ^ Walter Sittler: Landscapes . At: kultur.bayer.de , September 21, 2017.
  10. ↑ Walter Sittler: "I never drank wine with Roger Willemsen - unfortunately" . At: rp-online.de , September 15, 2017
  11. ^ Godfather - Walter Sittler. In: Children's Hospice Bethel . Retrieved February 16, 2010 .
  12. ↑ Prominent friends: Walter Sittler at sos-kinderdoerfer.de, accessed on January 14, 2018.
  13. ↑ a b c Walter Sittler - One from here . At: programm.ard.de , December 2, 2017
  14. ↑ Background on nichtohneuns-film.de, accessed on January 14, 2018.
  15. ↑ a b Walter Sittler: "Gesocks, weg mit dem!" At: taz.de , April 13, 2012
  16. ↑ Hundreds of people watch in front of the train station . At: stuttgarter-zeitung.de , August 2, 2010
  17. ^ Hans Georg Frank: Thomas Strobl takes Sittler into kin custody. In: tagblatt.de. October 30, 2010, accessed October 7, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Strobl apologizes, Sittler accepts . At: stuttgarter-nachrichten.de , November 2, 2010.
  19. ^ Film page: Crew. In: Not without us! , accessed on January 14, 2018.
  20. ↑ a b c Walter Sittler. In: Agency Carola Studlar .
personal data
SURNAME Sittler, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor
DATE OF BIRTH 5th December 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois , United States