Ulrich Mühe

German actor (1953–2007)

Friedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe (; 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 gold award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, at the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Awards); and the Best Actor Award at the 2006 European Film Awards. 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 the Alexanderplatz demonstration 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, 1998–2007).

The son of a furrier, Mühe was born on 20 June 1953 in Grimma, Bezirk Leipzig (part of present day Saxony), in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). After leaving school, he trained as a construction worker, then did compulsory military service in the Nationale Volksarmee (National People's Army) as a border guard at the Berlin Wall. He was relieved of duty after contracting stomach ulcers; possibly due to stress, according to observers, and also suggested that it marked the beginnings of the stomach cancer that would eventually lead to his death. He then turned to acting, and studied at the Theaterhochschule "Hans Otto" Leipzig from 1975 to 1979. 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 Städtisches 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. On screen, he co starred with his second wife Jenny Gröllmann in Herman Zschoche's film (Half of Life, 1984) about the German lyric poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843). 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). On 25 July 2007, he was buried in his mother's village of Walbeck in the Landkreis (rural district) of Börde, Saxony Anhalt.

Mühe was married three times. He was first married to dramaturge Annegret Hahn; the couple had two sons: 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

After German reunification, Mühe allegedly 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 registered as an "Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter" (unofficial collaborator), had with her controller from 1979 to 1989. 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. 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. which deals with a couple's troubled relationship. However, Lothar, who died in 2012, launched a lawsuit to block the film from release for nearly three years, apparently because she felt that it would cast the couple in a bad light.

Year Title Role Director Notes 1983 Olle Henry Junger Mann Ulrich Weiß 1985 The Woman and the Stranger Revolutionär Rainer Simon Friedrich Hölderlin Herrmann Zschoche 1989 Das Spinnennetz Theodor Lohse Bernhard Wicki Hard Days, Hard Nights Flimmer de 1990 Sehnsucht Sieghart Jürgen Brauer 1992 Schtonk! Dr. Wieland Helmut Dietl Benny's Video Vater Michael Haneke 1994 The Blue One Karl Kaminski Lienhard Wawrzyn 1995 Rennschwein Rudi Rüssel (Film) Dr. Heinrich Gützkow Peter Timm 1996 Peanuts – Die Bank zahlt alles Dr. Jochen Schuster Carlo Rola Engelchen Kommissar Helke Misselwitz 1997 Funny Games Georg Michael Haneke Die Healthy Hugo Wallner Gert Steinheimer The Castle K. Michael Haneke TV film 1998 lt=Night Time Eschbach Peter Fratzscher Rider of the Flames Jacob Gontard Nina Grosse 1999 Straight Shooter Markus Paufler Thomas Bohn 2001 Goebbels und Geduldig Harry Geduldig / Joseph Goebbels Kai Wessel 2002 Amen. Doctor Costa Gavras 2003 Spy Sorge Eugen Ott Masahiro Shinoda Hamlet X Claudius Müller Herbert Fritsch 2005 Schneeland Knövel Hans W. Geißendörfer 2006 The Lives of Others Hpt. Gerd Wiesler Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck 2007 My Führer – The Really Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler Adolf Grünbaum Dani Levy 2010 Nemesis Robert Nicole Mosleh Posthumous release, (final film role)

Year(s)of appearanceBookAwards and nominations1997Ein Monat in Dachau (One Month in Dachau, 1992)by Vladimir Sorokin; translated from the Russian by Peter Urban1999Ich bin eine Welt: Briefe und Gedichte – eine Collage (I am a World: Letters and Poems – a Collage)by Georg Trakl2000Einen Dichter denken – LAUT (A Poet Thinks – ALOUD)by Heiner Müller2002Adler und Engel (Eagles and Angels)by Juli Zeh2002Die Kinder (The Children)by Peter Hacks2002Reise gegen den Wind (Journey Against the Wind, 2000)by Peter Härtling2003Südkurier (Southern Mail, 1929)by Antoine de Saint Exupéry2003Wind, Sand und Sterne (Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939)by Antoine de Saint Exupéry2004Ein unbekannter Freund (A Friend of Unknown Quantity) by Ivan Bunin (read by Susanne Lothar and Ulrich Mühe)2004"Ich küsse Dich vielmals ": Liebesbriefe ("I Kiss You Many Times ": Love Letters) (read by Susanne Lothar and Ulrich Mühe)2005Der kleine Prinz (The Little Prince, 1943)by Antoine de Saint Exupéry2005Weihnachtswünsche: Die Weihnachtsgeschichte nach Lukas und die schönsten Weihnachtsgedichte (Christmas Wishes: The History of Christmas according to Luke and the Most Beautiful Christmas Poems)by Joseph von Eichendorff (told by Otto Mellies, Ulrich Mühe and Otto Sander)2006Shakespeares Hamlet und alles, was ihn für uns zum kulturellen Gedächtnis macht (Shakespeare's Hamlet and Everything that Makes it Cultural Memory For Us) (read by Dietrich Schwanitz, Ulrich Mühe and Hanns Zischler)2006Von allem Anfang an (From All Beginning)by Christoph Hein[Date unknown]Helden wie wir (Heroes Like Us, 1995)by Thomas Brussig[Date unknown]Das kalte Herz (The Cold Heart, 1826)by Wilhelm Hauff[Date unknown]Der Katze, die immer nur ihre eigenen Wege ging(The Cats, which in Each Case Went Their Own Ways, ?1985)by Horst Hawemann[Date unknown]Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke (The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke, 1906)by Rainer Maria Rilke