Hannjo Hasse | |
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| Born | (1921-08-31)31 August 1921 |
| Died | 5 February 1983(1983-02-05) (aged 61) |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1945–1983 |
Hannjo Hasse (31 August 1921 – 5 February 1983) was an East German actor. Over his nearly four decade career, he was best known for his roles in the films ofLebende Ware (1966) andWalter Defends Sarajevo (1972), as well as the television seriesRote Bergsteiger (1968) andArchiv des Todes (1980).
Hasse began studying acting in 1938 and attended Lily Ackermann's Institute for Stage Artists' Education in Berlin. At 1941, he was drafted in theLabour Service, and later in the Army. After the end of theSecond World War and his release from captivity, Hasse returned toWeimar, where he spent another six months to complete his drama training.[1]
He made his debut on stage at the Nordhausen Theater, where he was also employed as a dramaturgist. Later, he also worked in theaters inEisleben,Burg bei Magdeburg andSchwerin, before settling in theHans Otto Theater in Potsdam, in which he was a member of the regular cast between 1954 and 1962. Afterwards, he moved to Berlin'sVolksbühne, and then to theDeutsches Theater. Hasse played a wide range of supporting characters, fromMalvolio to theFledermaus.[2]
Hasse made his first appearance on screen already during 1951, playing a minor role inDer Untertan. From the late 1950s, he focused mainly on cinema and television work. Although his earlier stage roles were mostly comical in nature, he depicted sinister characters almost solely; Renate Seydel, who interviewed him in 1966, commented that he was the most perennial villain in the actors' cast ofDEFA andDeutscher Fernsehfunk. He portrayed greedy pioneers who sought to dispossessNative Americans in many of East Germany'sRed Western pictures. He is also remembered for depictingSD Colonel von Dietrich in the Yugoslavpartisan filmWalter Defends Sarajevo or aGestapo officer in the Czechoslovak filmHigher Principle. In addition to those entertainment films, he also portrayed historical antagonists in several bleaker pictures dealing with the recent past, likeAlfred Naujocks inThe Gleiwitz Case,Reinhard HeydrichinSokolovo andAdolf Eichmann in 1966'sLebende Ware – based on theblood for goods affair. Hasse told Seydel that he considered those roles as having educational value, in order to "demonstrate the full horror of Fascism" to younger viewers.[3]
Hasse was awarded theArt Prize of the German Democratic Republic on 7 May 1971.[4] He is buried atStahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery.
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