Justus von Dohnányi

Justus von Dohnányi (born 2 December 1960) is a German actor, best known for portraying Wilhelm Burgdorf in the 2004 film Downfall.

Life and career Born in Lübeck, von Dohnányi is the son of conductor Christoph von Dohnányi and actress and a member of the well-known Dohnányi family. His grandfather was Hans von Dohnanyi, German jurist and German resistance fighter and his great-uncle was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran pastor and a co-founder of the Confessing Church, both of whom were executed by the Third Reich. His great-grandfather was Ernst von Dohnányi, a notable composer of Hungarian origin.

Dohnányi studied acting at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. He appeared on the legitimate stage in Hamburg, Zürich, and Frankfurt before working in television, where he appeared in several television movies. He had a prominent role in the 2001 movie The Experiment as a prison guard, opposite Moritz Bleibtreu and Christian Berkel, who also appeared in Downfall. He received the 2001 Lola for Best Supporting Actor. Ludwig II (2012) – Johann (Freiherr von) Lutz (2013) – Hugh Gordon (2013, TV film) – Richard Wagner The Monuments Men (2014) – Viktor Stahl Frau Müller muss weg! (2015) – Wolf Heider Woman in Gold (2015) – Dreimann (2015) – Ed Help, I Shrunk My Teacher (2015) – Schulrat Henning Der Hund begraben (2016) – Hans (2017) – Baron Lefuet Charité (2017, TV series, 6 episodes) – Robert Koch (2017) – Ulrich Dattelmann How About Adolf? (2018) – René König Lassie Come Home (2020) – Butler Gerhardt Locked-in Society (2022) – Klaus Engelhardt (2022) – René König