Ulrich Mühe

Infobox actor
name = Ulrich Mühe

---

caption = Mühe in Cologne on 5 December 2005 at a ZDF photography session for the TV series "Der letzte Zeuge" ("The Last Witness").
birthname = Friedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe
birthdate = Birth date|df=yes|1953|6|20
birthplace = Grimma, Saxony, German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
deathdate = Death date and age|df=yes|2007|7|22|1953|6|20
deathplace = Walbeck, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
yearsactive = 1979–2007
occupation = Actor and director
spouse = Annegret Hahn
Jenny Gröllmann
(1984–1990)
Susanne Lothar
(1997–2007)
children = Andreas Mühe
Konrad Mühe
Anna Maria Mühe (b. 1985)
Sophie Marie Mühe
Jakob Mühe
awards = Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Gold, "Deutscher Filmpreis" (German Film Awards) (2006)
Best Actor, "Bayerischer Filmpreis" (Bavarian Film Awards) (2006)
Golden Swan for Best Actor, Copenhagen International Film Festival (2006)
Best Actor, European Film Awards (2006)
Best Actor, German Film Critics Association Awards (2007)

Friedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe (pronounced|ˈʊlʁɪç ˈmyːə) (20 June 1953 – 22 July 2007) was a German film, television and theatre actor. He played the role of Hauptmann (Captain) Gerd Wiesler in the Oscar-winning film "Das Leben der Anderen" ("The Lives of Others", 2006), for which he received the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Gold, at Germany's most prestigious film awards, the "Deutscher Filmpreis" (German Film Awards); and the Best Actor Award at the 2006 European Film Awards.

Curiously, events in Mühe's life were mirrored by the plot of the film, as he discovered in a Stasi file compiled on him that he had been under surveillance by his second wife, Jenny Gröllmann. This was denied by Gröllmann who, after an acrimonious and highly-publicized court case, succeeded in obtaining an injunction to prevent Mühe from repeating the allegation in a book.

After leaving school, Mühe was employed as a construction worker and a border guard at the Berlin Wall. He then turned to acting, and from the late 1970s into the 1980s appeared in numerous plays, becoming a star of the Deutsches Theater in East Berlin. He was active in politics and denounced Communist rule in East Germany in a memorable address at Alexanderplatz on 4 November 1989 shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. After German reunification he continued to appear in a large number of films, television programmes and theatre productions. In Germany he was particularly known for playing the lead role of Dr. Robert Kolmaar in the long-running forensic crime series "Der letzte Zeuge" ("The Last Witness", 1998–present).

Early life and education

The son of a furrier, [Mühe's older brother Andreas took over the family's furrier business: cite web|title=Biography for Ulrich Mühe|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0618057/bio|publisher=Internet Movie Database (IMDb)|accessdate=2007-08-05 However, according to an obituary in "The Independent" published on 26 July 2007, Mühe's father was a tanner: see cite news|title=Ulrich Mühe : Star of 'The Lives of Others' (obituary)|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2802598.ece|publisher=The Independent|date=2007-07-26] Mühe was born on 20 June 1953 in Grimma, [In 2007, shortly before his death, Mühe was conferred honorary citizenship of Grimma: cite web|title=Biography for Ulrich Mühe|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0618057/bio|publisher=Internet Movie Database (IMDb)|accessdate=2007-08-05] Saxony, in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). After leaving school he trained as a construction worker, then served in the "Nationalen Volksarmee" (National People's Army) as a border guard at the Berlin Wall.cite news|title=Ulrich Mühe (obituary)|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/27/db2702.xml|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=2007-07-27] He was relieved of duty after contracting stomach ulcers;cite news|title='The Lives of Others' Actor Ulrich Mühe Dies|url=http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2706089,00.html|publisher=Deutsche Welle|date=2007-07-25] a number of commentators have said that this was due to stress, and also suggested that it marked the beginnings of the stomach cancer that would eventually lead to his death.cite news|last=Paterson|first=Tony|title=Ulrich Mühe, Star of 'Lives of Others', Dies Aged 54|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2802631.ece|publisher=The Independent|date=2007-07-26] [For instance, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the director of "Das Leben der Anderen", expressed the view that the original cause of Mühe's stomach problems that eventually led to cancer was the anxiety he suffered when he was a conscript in the East German military: cite news|last=Bergan|first=Ronald|title=Ulrich Mühe (obituary)|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2136670,00.html|publisher=The Guardian|date=2007-07-28]

He then turned to acting, and studied at the Hans Otto Theaterhochschule in Leipzig from 1975 to 1979.cite news|last=Bergan|first=Ronald|title=Ulrich Mühe (obituary)|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2136670,00.html|publisher=The Guardian|date=2007-07-28] He appeared in his first professional stage role in 1979, as Lyngstrand in Ibsen's "Fruen fra havet" ("The Lady from the Sea") at the Städtlisches Theater in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz). He followed this by appearing in a production of "Macbeth" by playwright and director Heiner Müller at the Volksbühne in East Berlin.

Career

In 1983 at Müller's invitation he joined the ensemble of East Berlin's Deutsches Theater, and became its star due to his versatility in comic and serious roles, appearing in productions such as Goethe's "Egmont" (1986), Ibsen's "Peer Gynt" and Lessing's "Nathan der Weise" ("Nathan the Wise", 1988). He took the lead role of Hamlet in both Shakespeare's play and Heiner Müller's "Die Hamletmaschine" ("Hamletmachine", 1989). Mühe later said: "Theatre was the only place in the GDR where people weren't lied to. For us actors it was an island. We could dare to criticise."cite news|title=Ulrich Mühe : Star of 'The Lives of Others' (obituary)|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2802598.ece|publisher=The Independent|date=2007-07-26] On screen, he co-starred with his second wife Jenny Gröllmann in Herman Zschoche's film "Hälfte des Lebens" ("Half of Life", 1984) about the German lyric poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843).

Mühe played a leading role in organizing the demonstrations that took place prior to the reunification of Germany. He often gave public readings from Walter Jenka's essay "Schwierigkeiten mit der Wahrheit" ("Difficulties with the Truth", 1989) at the Deutsches Theater, before the book was permitted to be published in East Germany. On 4 November 1989 shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, in front of half a million people at Alexanderplatz, he declared the Communists' monopoly on power to be invalid. In the same year he became internationally known after appearing in Bernhard Wicki's "Das Spinnennetz" ("The Spider's Web", based on the novel of the same name by Austrian writer Joseph Roth) as a right-wing lieutenant who sleeps and murders his way to professional success in the early Weimar Republic following a near fatal injury during the Wilhelmshaven mutiny of 29 October 1918.

After German reunification he continued to appear in a large number of films, television programmes and theatre productions in Germany and abroad. He proved his ability to take on comic roles in "Schtonk!" (1991), an Oscar-nominated satire about the Hitler Diaries hoax, [cite news|title=Ulrich Mühe : German Actor who Won Acclaim Playing a Stasi Officer in the Oscar-winning "The Lives of Others" (obituary)|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2155356.ece|publisher=The Times|date=2007-07-28] and showed his more serious side in Michael Haneke's "Benny's Video" (1992), "Das Schloss" ("The Castle", 1996) (an adaptation of Kafka's "The Castle" (1922)) and "Funny Games" (1997). In the latter film, Mühe and his third wife Suzanne Lothar played a husband and wife held captive in their holiday cabin by two psychotic young men who force them to play sadistic "games" with one another.

In recent years Mühe played a series of Nazis. He portrayed Joseph Goebbels in "Goebbels und Geduldig" ("Goebbels and Geduldig", 2001); Dr. Josef Mengele in "Amen." (2002), a film by Costa Gavras; and was to have played Klaus Barbie in an upcoming feature. His last film was the comedy "Mein Führer – Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler" ("My Führer: The Truly Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler", 2007), in which he played Prof. Adolf Israel Grünbaum, an actor hired to give Hitler lessons.

In 2006 he appeared at the Barbican Arts Centre in London in "Zerbombt", Thomas Ostermeier's German production of Sarah Kane's "Blasted", playing a middle-aged journalist whose encounter with a young girl leads to pandemonium in a Leeds hotel room.

Mühe was also well-known in Germany for playing the brilliant but eccentric pathologist Dr. Robert Kolmaar in 73 episodes of the forensic crime serial "Der letzte Zeuge" ("The Last Witness", 1998–2007), for which he was awarded the prize for "Beste/r Schauspieler/in in einer Serie" (Best Actor or Actress in a TV Series) at the "Deutscher Fernsehpreis" (German Television Awards) in 2005.

"The Lives of Others", and later life

However, to English-speaking audiences, Mühe was probably best known for portraying Hauptmann (Captain) Gerd Wiesler in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's "Das Leben der Anderen" ("The Lives of Others", 2006), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007. The film is set in the mid-1980s, and Wiesler is a Stasi agent who is assigned to bug and conduct surveillance of the apartment of an East German playwright, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), and his girlfriend, the actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). However, he becomes disillusioned about the necessity of monitoring the couple for national security reasons after discovering that the government minister who ordered the surveillance did so for sexual rather than political motives. Gradually, Wiesler's heart moves from contempt and envy to compassion. For his performance, in 2006 Mühe received, among other things, the "Beste darstellerische Leistung – Männliche Hauptrolle" (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role), Gold, at Germany's most prestigious film awards, the "Deutscher Filmpreis" (German Film Awards); and the Best Actor Award at the European Film Awards.

The Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur (Federal Foundation for the Reconciliation of the SED Dictatorship, known in short as "Stiftung Aufarbeitung"), the government-funded organization tasked with examining and reappraising East Germany's Communist dictatorship, said of Mühe: "Through his impressive performance... Ulrich Mühe sensitized an audience of millions to the Stasi's machinations and their consequences." The statement added that Mühe had been an active and valued participant in the foundation's events.

Mühe was already seriously ill at the prize-giving ceremony in Los Angeles in February 2007 when "Das Leben der Anderen" was awarded its Oscar, and flew back to Germany hours later for an urgent stomach operation. In an article in "Die Welt" dated 21 July 2007, Mühe discussed his diagnosis of stomach cancer which had put his acting career on hold; he died the following day.cite news|title=Oscar Film's German Star Dies|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/25/german.actor.reut/index.html|publisher=CNN|date=2007-07-25] On 25 July 2007 he was buried in his mother's village of Walbeck in the "Landkreis" (rural district) of Börde, Saxony-Anhalt. [cite news|title=Ulrich Mühe am Mittwoch beigesetzt|url=http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/Aktuelle-Nachrichten/de/12640566/(%DCbersicht-Neu-Beerdigung)-Zeitung-Ulrich-M%FChe-am|publisher=Ad-Hoc News|date=2007-07-25 In German.]

Personal life

Mühe was married three times. He was first married to dramaturge Annegret Hahn and had two sons by her: Andreas, a Berlin-based photographer, and Konrad, a painter. His second marriage was in 1984 to the actress Jenny Gröllmann, after they fell in love while acting together in the TV film "Die Poggenpuhls" ("The Poggenpuhls") in that year. Mühe and Gröllmann had a daughter, Anna Maria Mühe, who is also an actress, and he was stepfather to Gröllmann's daughter Jeanne, a make-up artist. [cite web|title=Biography for Ulrich Mühe|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0618057/bio|publisher=Internet Movie Database (IMDb)|accessdate=2007-11-23 See imdb name|0344949|Jeanne Gröllmann Retrieved on 23 November 2007.]

After German reunification, Mühe discovered evidence in his Stasi file that he had been under surveillance not only by four of his fellow actors in the East Berlin theatre, but also by his wife Gröllmann. The file held detailed records of meetings that Gröllmann, who was allegedly an "Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter" (unofficial collaborator), had with her controller from 1979 to 1989. [cite news|title=Ulrich Mühe 1953-2007 : The Actor who Played the Conscience-Stricken Stasi in The Lives of Others has Died|url=http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/07/ulrich_muehe_19532007.html|publisher=The Guardian|date=2007-07-25] This mirrored the plot of "Das Leben der Anderen" as in the film pressure exerted by the Stasi on the playwright's girlfriend makes her betray him as the author of an "exposé" of covered-up GDR suicide rates. Mühe and Gröllmann divorced in 1990. [cite web|title=Biography for Ulrich Mühe|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0618057/bio|publisher=Internet Movie Database (IMDb)|accessdate=2007-08-05] In a book accompanying the film, Mühe spoke about the sense of betrayal he felt when he found out about his former wife's alleged Stasi role. However, Gröllmann's real-life controller later claimed he had made up many of the details in the file and that the actress had been unaware that she was speaking to a Stasi agent. After a highly public and acrimonious battle in the courts, Gröllmann, who died in August 2006, won an injunction preventing the book's publication. Mühe's response when asked how he prepared for his role in "Das Leben der Anderen" was, "I remembered."

At the time of Mühe's death, he was married to his third wife, stage actress Susanne Lothar, and living in Berlin with her and their two children, Sophie Marie and Jakob.

Awards

In addition to the awards mentioned elsewhere in this article, Mühe was conferred the following awards:

*1990 – The Chaplin Shoe, the "Deutscher Darstellerpreis" (German Actor Award) of the Bundesverbandes der Fernseh- und Filmregisseure in Deutschland eV (Federal Association of Television and Film Directors in Germany).
*1991 – The "Gertrud-Eysoldt-Ring" (Gertrud Eysoldt Ring)
*1992 – The Bambi
*1994 – The "Kainz-Medaille" (Kainz Medal)
*2006 – The "Bernhard-Wicki-Filmpreis" (Bernhard Wicki Film Award)
*The "Helene-Weigel-Medaille" (Helene Weigel Medal)
*The prize of the critics of the "Berliner Zeitung"

elected works

Film

Audio books

Some information in this table was obtained from the [http://dispatch.opac.ddb.de online catalogue] of the German National Library.

Notes

References

*cite news|last=Plass|first=Sarah|title=Ulrich Mühe, Film and Stage Actor, Dies at 54|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/arts/26muhe.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=obituaries&adxnnlx=1185655610-fKTDH4uCHyuVeV7rah+QeA|publisher=The New York Times (Late Edition)|date=2007-07-25|page=7
*cite news|title=Ulrich Mühe 1953-2007 : The Actor who Played the Conscience-Stricken Stasi in The Lives of Others has Died|url=http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/07/ulrich_muehe_19532007.html|publisher=The Guardian|date=2007-07-25
*cite news|last=Paterson|first=Tony|title=Ulrich Mühe, Star of 'Lives of Others', Dies Aged 54|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2802631.ece|publisher=The Independent|date=2007-07-26
*cite news|title=Ulrich Mühe : Star of 'The Lives of Others' (obituary)|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2802598.ece|publisher=The Independent|date=2007-07-26
*cite news|title=Ulrich Mühe (obituary)|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/27/db2702.xml|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=2007-07-27
*cite news|last=Bergan|first=Ronald|title=Ulrich Mühe (obituary)|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2136670,00.html|publisher=The Guardian|date=2007-07-28
*cite news|title=Ulrich Mühe : German Actor who Won Acclaim Playing a Stasi Officer in the Oscar-winning "The Lives of Others" (obituary)|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2155356.ece|publisher=The Times|date=2007-07-28

Further reading

*cite news|title=Seine letzten Tage plante Ulrich Mühe bis ins Detail|url=http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/leute/2007/07/26/ulrich-muehe/beisetzung-trauer.html|publisher="Bild"|date=2007-07-25 In German.
*cite news|title=Ulrich Mühe, Star of 'The Lives of Others,' Dies at 54|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/25/news/obits.php|publisher="International Herald Tribune"|date=2007-07-25
*cite news|title=Ulrich Mühe, 'Lives Of Others' Star, Dies|url=http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2007/07/25/ulrich_muhe_lives_of_others_star_dies/4044/|publisher=United Press International (UPI)|date=2007-07-25
*cite news|title=Actor Helped Bring Down the Wall|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/actor-helped-bring-down-the-wall/2007/07/29/1185647737665.html|publisher="The Sydney Morning Herald"|date=2007-07-30

External links

*imdb name|id=0618057|name=Ulrich Mühe
* [http://whatawonderful.tripod.com/dreamingulrich/ Dreaming Ulrich] – an unofficial fan-site
*cite web|title=Photo Gallery : Ulrich Mühe|url=http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/0,5538,23437,00.html|publisher=Spiegel Online|date=2007-07-25|accessdate=2007-08-05
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=5515 Photographs of Ulrich Mühe at Virtual History Film]
* [http://www.sonyclassics.com/thelivesofothers/ Official English website of "Das Leben der Anderen" ("The Lives of Others", 2006)]
* [http://www.movie.de/filme/dlda/ Official German website of "Das Leben der Anderen" ("The Lives of Others", 2006)]

Persondata
NAME = Mühe, Ulrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Mühe, Friedrich Hans Ulrich
SHORT DESCRIPTION = German film, television and theatre actor
DATE OF BIRTH = 20 June 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH = Grimma, Saxony, Germany
DATE OF DEATH = 22 July 2007
PLACE OF DEATH = Walbeck, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany