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Marianne Hoppe | |
|---|---|
 Marianne Hoppe photographed byOliver Mark, Berlin 2001 | |
| Born | Marianne Stefanie Paula Henni Gertrud Hoppe (1909-04-26)26 April 1909 |
| Died | 23 October 2002(2002-10-23) (aged 93) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1933–1991 |
| Spouse | Gustaf Gründgens (1936–1946; divorced) |
| Partner | Thomas Bernhard |
| Children | 1 |
Marianne Hoppe (26 April 1909 – 23 October 2002) was a Germantheatre andfilm actress.
Born inRostock, Hoppe became a leading lady of stage and films in Germany. She was born into a wealthy landowning family and was initially privately educated on her father's private estate. Later she attended school inBerlin and inWeimar, where she began to attend theatre.[1]
Hoppe first performed at 17 as a member ofBerlin'sDeutsches Theater under directorMax Reinhardt. In 1935 she was hired by the controversial German actor and Director of the Prussian State Theatre under the Third Reich,Gustaf Gründgens. They were married from 1936 to 1946, until their divorce. Speaking years after the marriage had ended Hoppe stated, "He was my love, but never my great love, that was work."[1]
One of the characters in the filmMephisto was reportedly based on her. Hoppe made no secret of her contacts with the Nazi elite in the 1930s/40s, including being invited to dinner by Hitler.[2] Her role inDer Schimmelreiter (The Rider of the White Horse, 1934) made her famous almost overnight, while her "Aryan" face made her a darling of the Nazi elite.[1] Later Hoppe would label this period of her life as "the black page in my golden book".[1]
During her time acting at the home of the Prussian State Theatre, the Schauspielhaus, Hoppe developed her analytical approach to acting, which she stated consisted in her "taking apart every sentence" and giving the use of language a brilliance. This method was to be associated with Hoppe throughout her working life.[1] In 1946 her only child, Benedikt Johann Percy Gründgens, was born.
Four years later after her divorce from Gründgens, Hoppe had a great success asBlanche Dubois inTennessee Williams'sA Streetcar Named Desire, and increasingly played avant-garde roles, written by authors such asHeiner Müller (Quartett, 1994) andThomas Bernhard, who became her partner in private life as well. She became a favourite of the young and iconoclastic directorsClaus Peymann,Robert Wilson andFrank Castorf.[1]
Hoppe died inSiegsdorf,Bavaria, in 2002 from natural causes, aged 93. "German theater has lost its queen", saidClaus Peymann of theBerliner Ensemble, whose theatre featured Hoppe's last performance, inBertolt Brecht'sResistible Rise of Arturo Ui, in December 1997.[2] In one of her last interviews Hoppe stated, "I have a go at happiness every day. That takes discipline, a virtue every halfway decent actor should have."[1]
