Alexander Lang

Alexander Lang (24 September 1941 – 31 May 2024) was a German actor and stage director. He began his career, first as an actor, in East Berlin, at the Maxim Gorki Theater, the Berliner Ensemble from 1967, and the Deutsches Theater from 1969 where he played leading roles and then moved to stage direction.

Lang was director at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg from 1988. He worked as a guest at theatres and festivals in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands; he was invited three times to direct at the Comédie-Française in Paris.

Lang was regarded as an influential director, especially known for productions of works from the German classical period by Goethe, Schiller, Lessing and Kleist among others, with "a new, authentic approach". His father was an architect. He attended the there. He then studied from 1963 to 1966 the State Theatre School in East Berlin, He went to work for at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin in 1966, He then played Paul Bauch in Volker Braun's Die Kipper in 1973, Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest in 1974.

Lang's film and television appearances were relatively infrequent, including a prominent role, the philosopher Ralph in Konrad Wolf's 1980 film Solo Sunny, alongside Krößner, His next Hamburg productions were Rückkehr in die Wüste by Koltès in 1988 and Der Hofmeister by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz in 1989. In addition, in 1989, he worked at the Nederlands Toneel as a guest producer of Chekhov's Three Sisters. and at the Bregenzer Festspiele. The jury acknowledged his work, beginning as a spectacular young protagonist and then directing classical plays in "a new, authentic approach" with his "close-knit ensemble", inspiring with "comedic wit and enlightening fantasy". They noted his "defining influence from East to West". Lang was later married to Annette Reber, dramaturge of the Maxim Gorki Theater; she died in 2008 aged 43. He had a severe illness in the 2000s; and withdrew from the public.