Götz George
Encyclopedia
Götz George is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 actor, son of actor couple Berta Drews and Heinrich George
Heinrich George
Heinrich George , born Georg August Friedrich Hermann Schulz, was a German stage and film actor.He had one of his first roles in the Fritz Lang directed film Metropolis and the first film version of Berlin Alexanderplatz...

. His arguably best-known role is that of Duisburg
Duisburg
- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...

 commissar Horst Schimanski
Horst Schimanski
Horst Schimanski is a fictional policeman who appears in the German Tatort crime series. Portrayed by Götz George, he made his debut in the 1981 episode "Duisburg-Ruhrort" and appeared in 29 episodes until 1991. In 1997 his own Schimanski crime series was started. Schimanski now was a retired...

 in the TV crime series Tatort
Tatort
Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss , crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF 2 in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland...

.

Early years

George was born in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 into an acting family: his father Heinrich George
Heinrich George
Heinrich George , born Georg August Friedrich Hermann Schulz, was a German stage and film actor.He had one of his first roles in the Fritz Lang directed film Metropolis and the first film version of Berlin Alexanderplatz...

 was a famous film and theater star of his era; his mother Berta Drews a well-known character actress. George is named after his father's favorite character, Götz von Berlichingen
Götz von Berlichingen
Gottfried "Götz" von Berlichingen and also known as Götz of the Iron Hand, was a German Imperial Knight and mercenary....

. His father was imprisoned in the former Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen by the Soviets and died, exhausted and starving, in 1946, after a botched appendix
Vermiform appendix
The appendix is a blind-ended tube connected to the cecum , from which it develops embryologically. The cecum is a pouchlike structure of the colon...

 operation at the Soviet concentration camp Speziallager Nr. 7 Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...

 (:de:Speziallager Nr. 7 Sachsenhausen). George grew up in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 with his elder brother Jan and his mother. He went to school in Berlin-Lichterfelde and later attended the Lyzeum Alpinum in Zuoz, Switzerland. He was married to Loni von Friedl from 1966 to 1976, who gave birth to their daughter Tanja-Nicole in 1967.

Acting career

George made his stage debut in 1950, performing a role in William Saroyan
William Saroyan
William Saroyan was an Armenian American dramatist and author. The setting of many of his stories and plays is the center of Armenian-American life in California in his native Fresno.-Early years:...

's Mein Herz ist im Hochland. In 1953 he was able to get a small film role next to Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider was an Austrian-born German film actress who also held French citizenship.-Early life:Schneider was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach in Nazi-era Vienna, six months after the Anschluss, into a family of actors that included her paternal grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty, her Austrian...

 in Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht. In the same year he played, as he would often do from then on, next to his mother in Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...

. From 1955 to 1958 he studied at the Berlin UFA-Nachwuchsstudio, though he received the crucial part of his acting education between 1958 and 1963. Following his mother's advice he occasionally played at the Deutsches Theater in Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...

 under the direction of Heinz Hilpert. After Hilpert's death, George would never join a fixed theater company again, although he did regularly perform on tours and as a guest performer.

Hansgünther Heyme signed him in 1972 to the Kölner
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

 Schauspielhaus, where George played Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

 in Dieter Forte's Martin Luther und Thomas Münzer. His most important stage achievement, in his own opinion, was the lead role in Büchner
Georg Büchner
Karl Georg Büchner was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose. He was the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchner. Büchner's talent is generally held in great esteem in Germany...

's Dantons Tod during the Salzburger Festspiele in 1981. In 1986 and 1987 George, together with Eberhard Feik and Helmut Stauss, stage-managed Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...

's Revisor. Performing in Anton Tschechow's Platonov, George went on his hitherto last theater tour.

After small movie parts during the 1950s, Götz George broke through with audiences and critics in the film Jacqueline.

George was awarded the Bundesfilmpreis and the Preis der Filmkritik for his role. In 1962 he received the Bambi Award
Bambi (prize)
The Bambi - Deutschlands Wichtigster Medienpreis, often simply called Bambi Awards and stylized as BAMBI, are presented annually by Hubert Burda Media to recognize excellence in international media and television "with vision and creativity who affected and inspired the German public that year",...

 as the most popular actor; he won this award again in 1984 and 1987.

In the sixties, George got the chance to show that he is able to do more than playing sappy peasants, through roles in movies such as Kirmes, playing a desperate Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

 deserter, and Herrenpartie. More often, though, he performed in comedies and action-oriented movies which benefited from his physical presence. He became well-known to a broad audience when, during his theater tour in Göttingen, Horst Wendlandt persuaded him to play in one of the Karl May
Karl May
Karl Friedrich May was a popular German writer, noted mainly for adventure novels set in the American Old West, and similar books set in the Orient and Middle East . In addition, he wrote stories set in his native Germany, in China and in South America...

 series of films, which he started in 1962 with Der Schatz im Silbersee. It was originally planned to give George the lead role of the farmer son Fred Engel, but this plan was abandoned when Lex Barker
Lex Barker
Lex Barker was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May's novels.-Early life:...

 became engaged, playing the role of Old Shatterhand
Old Shatterhand
Old Shatterhand is a fictional character in western novels by German writer Karl May . He is the German friend and blood brother of Winnetou, the fictional chief of the Mescalero tribe of the Apache...

.

George performs all stunts himself, even in his lead role as sheriff in Sie nannten ihn Gringo.

In the 1970s he turned primarily to stage roles and to television, including the many episodes of Der Komissar, Tatort, Derrick, and Der Alte for which he would become famous. It was not until 1977 that he was cast in a prominent role again, playing Franz Lang in Aus Einem Deutschen Leben, a character modeled after Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höß
Rudolf Höß
Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss was an SS-Obersturmbannführer , and from 4 May 1940 to November 1943, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, where it is estimated that more than a million people were murdered...

.

George probably had his greatest popular success in the eighties on TV: in Tatort episodes of the WDR, broadcast from 1981 to 1991, he portrayed proletarian police officer Horst Schimanski
Horst Schimanski
Horst Schimanski is a fictional policeman who appears in the German Tatort crime series. Portrayed by Götz George, he made his debut in the 1981 episode "Duisburg-Ruhrort" and appeared in 29 episodes until 1991. In 1997 his own Schimanski crime series was started. Schimanski now was a retired...

, who eventually became cult in German TV. The series of Schulz & Schulz movies, starting in 1989 and dealing with the issue of the German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

, gave him the opportunity to show his talents as a comedian in a double role, as did the role of the industry consultant Morlock in the series of the same name, which is rather far removed from the roughneck charm of senior commissar Schimanski.

Among George's most impressive roles in the nineties are his TV appearances: In Der Sandmann he portrayed the alleged serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

 and writer Henry Kupfer as a cold, calculating and manipulative
Psychological manipulation
Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,...

 intellectual, and in Die Bubi-Scholz-Story, the trauma of an aged, broken boxer.

Awards

  • 1995 Bavarian Film Awards
    Bayerischer Filmpreis
    The Bavarian Film Awards have been awarded annually since 1979 by the State Government of Bavaria in Germany for “exceptional achievement in German filmmaking.” Along with the German Film Awards, these are the most highly regarded awards for filmmaking achievement in Germany.The Bavarian Film...

    , Best Actor
  • Awards for Götz George at the Internet Movie Database
    Internet Movie Database
    Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...


Filmography (Movies)

  • Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht, 1953
  • Ihre große Prüfung, 1953
  • Alter Kahn und junge Liebe/ Sonne über den Seen (GDR), 1957
  • Solange das Herz, 1958
  • Jacqueline, 1959
  • The Fair
    The Fair (film)
    The Fair is a 1960 German drama film directed by Wolfgang Staudte. It was entered into the 10th Berlin International Film Festival where Juliette Mayniel won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.-Cast:* Juliette Mayniel - Annette...

     (Kirmes), 1960
  • Die Fastnachtsbeichte, 1960
  • Der Teufel spielt Balaleika, 1961
  • Mörderspiel, 1961
  • Unser Haus in Kamerun, 1961
  • Ihr schönster Tag / Das Fenster zum Flur, 1962
  • Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt, 1962
  • Nur tote Zeugen schweigen (Hipnosis), 1963
  • Liebe will gelernt sein, 1963
  • Man and Beast
    Man and Beast
    Man and Beast is a 1963 German-Yugoslavian war film directed by Edwin Zbonek. It was entered into the 13th Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Götz George - Häftling Franz* Günther Ungeheuer - Willi Köhler* Katinka Hoffmann - Vera...

     (Mensch und Bestie), 1963
  • Destination Death
    Destination Death
    Destination Death is a 1964 German-Yugoslavian war film directed by Wolfgang Staudte. It was entered into the 14th Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Götz George - Herbert Hackländer* Hans Nielsen - Major a. D...

     (Herrenpartie), 1964
  • Wartezimmer zum Jenseits, 1964
  • Unter Geiern, 1964
  • Ferien mit Piroschka, 1965
  • Sie nannten ihn Gringo, 1965
  • Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi, 1966
  • Der Schatz im Silbersee, 1962
  • Ich spreng' euch alle in die Luft - Inspektor Blomfields Fall Nr. 1 (video release title: Der Superbulle / Mad Joe), 1968
  • Der Todeskuss des Dr. Fu Man Chu, 1968
  • Commandos, 1968
  • Ostwind (Le Vent d'Est), 1970
  • Die Diamanten des Präsidenten (The Pawn), 1976
  • Death is my Trade
    Death Is My Trade
    Death Is My Trade is a 1952 French fictionalized biographical novel by Robert Merle. The protagonist, Rudolf Lang, was closely based on the real Rudolf Höß, commandant of the concentration camp Auschwitz.-Summary:...

     (Aus einem deutschen Leben), 1977
  • Abwärts, 1984
  • Zahn um Zahn, 1985
  • Zabou, 1987
  • Die Katze, 1988
  • Der Bruch (GDR), 1989
  • Blauäugig, 1989
  • Schtonk!
    Schtonk!
    Schtonk! is a satirical German movie, retelling the hoax of the Hitler Diaries.Subtitled Der Film zum Buch vom Führer , the movie is a grotesque farce about the events when, in 1983, German Stern magazine began to publish, with great fanfare, the 60 volumes of the alleged diaries of Adolf Hitler...

    , 1992
  • Ich und Christine, 1993
  • Die Sturzflieger, 1993
  • Der Sandmann, 1995
  • Deathmaker
    Deathmaker
    Deathmaker is a 1995 German film directed by Romuald Karmakar and starring Götz George, Jürgen Hentsch and Pierre Franckh. The film is based on the transcripts of the interrogation of the notorious serial killer Fritz Haarmann....

     (Der Totmacher) 1995
  • Rossini, 1997
  • Das Trio, 1998
  • Solo für Klarinette, 1998
  • After the Truth (Nichts als die Wahrheit), 1999
  • Viktor Vogel - Commercial Man
    Viktor Vogel - Commercial Man
    Viktor Vogel – Commercial Man is a German comedy released in 2001 in the US and other countries as Advertising Rules! Directed by Lars Kraume, the cast includes, Götz George, Alexander Scheer, and Chulpan Khamatova.-Story Overview:...

    , 2001
  • Gott ist tot, 2003
  • Maria an Callas, 2006
  • Mein Kampf, 2009

Filmography (made-for-TV movies and series)

  • Kolportage, 1957
  • Alle meine Söhne, 1965
  • Schlehmihls wundersame Geschichte, 1967
  • Match, 1968
  • Ein Jahr ohne Sonntag, 1969
  • 11 Uhr 20, 1970
  • Der Kommissar, Episode: Tod einer Zeugin, 1970
  • Tatort: Blechschaden, 1971
  • Diamantendetektiv Dick Donald, 1971
  • Der Kommissar, Episode: Der Amoklauf, 1972
  • Der Illegale, 1972
  • Tatort: Rattennest, 1972
  • Kesselflickers Hochzeit, 1972
  • Die Gräfin von Rathenow, 1973
  • Der Kommissar, Episode: Sommerpension, 1973
  • Zwischen den Flügen, 1973
  • Mandragola, 1974
  • Café Hungaria, 1976
  • Tatort: Transit ins Jenseits, 1976
  • Vermutungen über Franz Bieberkopf, 1977
  • Derrick
    Derrick (TV series)
    Derrick is a German TV series produced by Telenova Film und Fernsehproduktion in association with ZDF, ORF and SRG between 1974 and 1998 about Detective Chief Inspector Stephan Derrick and his loyal assistant Inspector Harry Klein , who solve murder cases in Munich and surroundings Derrick is a...

     - Season 5, Episode 10: "Der Spitzel" (1978)
  • Der Alte, Episode: Der schöne Alex, 1978
  • Überfall in Glasgow, 1981
  • Die Sonnenpferde (Les chevaux du soleil), 1981
  • Tatort: Duisburg Ruhrort, 1981
  • Der König und sein Narr, 1981
  • Tatort: Grenzgänger, 1981
  • Tatort: Der unsichtbare Gegner, 1982
  • Der Regenmacher (The Rainmaker), 1982
  • Tatort: Das Mädchen auf der Treppe, 1982
  • Tatort: Kuscheltiere, 1982
  • Tatort: Miriam, 1983
  • Das schöne Ende dieser Welt, 1984
  • Tatort: Kielwasser, 1984
  • Tatort: Zweierlei Blut, 1984
  • Abgehört, 1984
  • Tatort: Rechnung ohne Wirt, 1984
  • Tatort: Doppelspiel, 1985
  • Tatort: Das Haus im Wald, 1985
  • Tatort: Zahn um Zahn, 1985 (Kinofilm)
  • Tatort: Der Tausch, 1986
  • Tatort: Schwarzes Wochenende, 1986
  • Tatort: Freunde, 1986
  • Tatort: Zabou, 1987 (Kinofilm)
  • Tatort: Spielverderber, 1987
  • Tatort: Gebrochene Blüten, 1988
  • Tatort: Einzelhaft, 1988
  • Tatort: Moltke, 1988
  • Tatort: Der Pott, 1989
  • Tatort: Blutspur, 1989
  • Spielen willst du ja alles. Götz George - rastlos im Einsatz, 1989
  • Tatort: Katjas Schweigen, 1989
  • Schulz & Schulz
    Schulz & Schulz
    Schulz & Schulz is a TV series consisting of five feature-length films starring Götz George in a dual role as twin brothers Wolfgang and Walter Schulz who during WII were separated and then raised in different parts of Germany. The first film was broadcast while the German Democratic Republic still...

    , 1989
  • Tatort: Medizinmänner, 1990
  • Tatort: Schimanskis Waffe, 1990
  • Tatort: Unter Brüdern, 1990
  • Schulz & Schulz
    Schulz & Schulz
    Schulz & Schulz is a TV series consisting of five feature-length films starring Götz George in a dual role as twin brothers Wolfgang and Walter Schulz who during WII were separated and then raised in different parts of Germany. The first film was broadcast while the German Democratic Republic still...

     II, 1991
  • Tatort: Bis zum Hals im Dreck, 1991
  • Tatort: Kinderlieb 1991
  • Tatort: Der Fall Schimanski, 1991
  • Schulz & Schulz
    Schulz & Schulz
    Schulz & Schulz is a TV series consisting of five feature-length films starring Götz George in a dual role as twin brothers Wolfgang and Walter Schulz who during WII were separated and then raised in different parts of Germany. The first film was broadcast while the German Democratic Republic still...

     III, 1992
  • Schulz & Schulz
    Schulz & Schulz
    Schulz & Schulz is a TV series consisting of five feature-length films starring Götz George in a dual role as twin brothers Wolfgang and Walter Schulz who during WII were separated and then raised in different parts of Germany. The first film was broadcast while the German Democratic Republic still...

     IV, 1992
  • Morlock I - Kinderkram, 1993
  • Morlock II - Die Verflechtung, 1993
  • Morlock III - König Midas, 1993
  • Schulz & Schulz
    Schulz & Schulz
    Schulz & Schulz is a TV series consisting of five feature-length films starring Götz George in a dual role as twin brothers Wolfgang and Walter Schulz who during WII were separated and then raised in different parts of Germany. The first film was broadcast while the German Democratic Republic still...

    V, 1993
  • Morlock IV - Der Tunnel, 1994
  • Das Schwein - Eine deutsche Karriere, 1995
  • Der König von Duisburg, 1995
  • Der Sandmann, 1995
  • Der Mann auf der Bettkante, 1995
  • Tote sterben niemals aus, 1996
  • Tor des Feuers, 1996
  • Schimanski - Die Schwadron, 1997
  • Schimanski - Blutsbrüder, 1997
  • Schimanski - Hart am Limit, 1997
  • Die Bubi-Scholz-Story, 1998/99
  • Bargeld lacht, 2001
  • Schimanski - Kinder der Hölle, 2001
  • Liebe. Macht. Blind., 2001
  • Mein Vater, 2002
  • Liebe ist die halbe Miete, 2002
  • Schimanski - Asyl, 2002
  • Verliebte Diebe, 2002
  • Der Anwalt und sein Gast, 2002
  • Geheimnisvolle Freundinnen, 2003
  • Familienkreise, 2003
  • René Deltgen - Der sanfte Rebell, 2004
  • Schimanski - Das Geheimnis des Golem, 2004
  • Blatt und Blüte - Die Erbschaft, 2004
  • Alpenglühen zwei - Liebe versetzt Berge, 2005
  • Kein Himmel über Afrika, 2005
  • Einmal so wie ich will, 2005
  • Kabale und Liebe, 2005
  • Schimanski - Sünde, 2005
  • Die Sturmflut, 2006
  • Als der Fremde kam, 2006
  • Schimanski - Tod in der Siedlung, 2007
  • Der Novembermann, 2007
  • Die Katze, 2007
  • Meine fremde Tochter, 2008
  • Schimanski - Schicht im Schacht, 2008
  • Schokolade für den Chef, 2008

External links

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