Herbert Köfer

Herbert Köfer (17 February 1921 – 24 July 2021) was a German actor and television presenter. He was the first German TV news presenter for the East German Deutscher Fernsehfunk, and also presented the station's last news before the reunification of Germany. His first theatre engagement was in 1940, and he kept acting until the age of 100. Köfer played an SS-Hauptsturmführer in the 1963 film Nackt unter Wölfen (Naked Among Wolves). He was known for detective series such as Polizeiruf 110 and comic roles. He founded his own troupe, Köfers Komödiantenbühne, in 2003, and published memoirs.

Life Herbert Köfer was born in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. He went to acting school and started his career in 1940 with his first engagements at the theatre in Brieg, Lower Silesia. From 1941 to 1945 Köfer served in the Wehrmacht. He was a prisoner of war; when he returned, he worked in different theatres in Berlin, including the Volksbühne, Deutsches Theater and Kabarett Kleine Bühne. Köfer was both the presenter of the first moments of East German television and the host of the final show nearly 40 years later on 31 December 1991. Beginning in the late 1950s, he had roles as an actor in films and TV series. He also became part of the cabaret . His daughters Mirjam Köfer and Geertje Boeden from his second marriage to actress Ute Boeden are also actresses. His son Andreas Köfer from his first marriage is a cinematographer. He also had a foster daughter. and died in Berlin five months later.

Films

Films with Köfer include:

1951: Shakespeare's Was ihr wollt, Deutsches Theater Berlin 1952: Shakespeare's Die Komödie der Irrungen, Brandenburgisches Landestheater Potsdam

1997: Die Feuerzangenbowle, as Schnauz, Comödie Dresden 1997: Im weißen Rössl, as Wilhelm Gieseke, Comödie Dresden 2010: Ritter Ludwig, title role, Comödie Dresden

Publications

Das war's noch lange nicht. Erinnerungen. Ullstein, Berlin 1995. Nie war es so verrückt wie immer… Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2008. 99 und kein bisschen leise, 2019.

1969: Nationalpreis der DDR, I. Klasse for Krupp und Krause / Krause und Krupp