Kristina Söderbaum

Beata Margareta Kristina Söderbaum (5 September 1912 – 12 February 2001) was a Swedish-German film actress, film producer, and photographer. She performed in Nazi-era films made by a German state-controlled production company, several of them directed by her husband Veit Harlan.

Early life Söderbaum was born in Stockholm, Sweden; her father, Professor Henrik Gustaf Söderbaum (1862–1933), was the permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Söderbaum spent her school and boarding school years in Stockholm, Paris, and Switzerland. After both her parents died shortly after one another, Söderbaum moved to Berlin and enrolled in a theatre school.

Career

Nazi era Beginning in 1935, Söderbaum starred in a number of films with director Veit Harlan, whom she married in 1939. Harlan and Söderbaum made ten films together for the then state-controlled film production company UFA until 1945.

According to film historian Antje Ascheid, Söderbaum is frequently identified as "most singularly representative of the Nazi ideal, as the quintessential Nazi star". Her youth and beauty made her a symbol of health and purity and thus an exemplary specimen of the Nazi ideal of womanhood.

In a number of her films, she had been imperiled by the threat of rassenschande ("racial pollution"). Two such roles were Dorothea Sturm, the doomed heroine of the antisemitic historical melodrama Jud Süß, who commits suicide by drowning after being raped by the villain, and Anna in Die goldene Stadt, a Sudeten German whose desire for the city (in defiance of blood and soil) and whose seduction by a Czech result in her drowning suicide.

Other roles included Elske in The Journey to Tilsit, the wholesome German wife whose husband betrays her with a Polish woman, but finally returns, repentant; Elisabeth in Immensee, who marries a rich landowner to forget her unrequited love, and in the end decides to remain faithful even after she is widowed and her lover returns; Aels in Opfergang, a woman who dies after her love affair; and Maria in Kolberg, a peasant girl who loyally supports the resistance to Napoleon and is the only survivor of her family. In subsequent years, she frequently expressed regret for her roles in anti-Semitic films.

After her husband was again permitted to direct films, Söderbaum played leading roles in a number of his films. These included Blue Hour (1952), The Prisoner of the Maharaja (1953), Betrayal of Germany (1954), and I Will Carry You on My Hands (1958). Their last joint project was a 1963 theater production of August Strindberg's A Dream Play in Aachen.

After Harlan's death in 1964, Söderbaum became a noted fashion photographer. In 1974, she took a role in Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's film Karl May. In 1983, she published her memoirs under the title Nichts bleibt immer so ("Nothing Stays That Way Forever"). In her later years, Söderbaum faded into obscurity but still took roles in three movies and the television series The Bergdoktor. Her last film was with Hugh Grant in the thriller Night Train to Venice in 1994. She died in 2001 in a nursing home in Hitzacker, Lower Saxony, Germany.

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1933 How do you treat a dog? Short film 1934 The Song to Her Guest at Rondo admiring the dancer 1936 Uncle Bräsig Minning 1938 Ännchen Covered Tracks Séraphine Lawrence 1939 The Immortal Heart Ev Henlein The Journey to Tilsit Elske Settegast 1940 Jud Süß Tochter Dorothea Sturm 1942 The Great King Luise Treskow The Golden City Anna "Anuschka" Jobst 1943 Immensee Elisabeth Uhl 1944 Opfergang Aels Flodéen 1945 Kolberg Maria Werner 1951 Immortal Beloved Katharina von Hollstein Hanna Amon Hanna Amon 1953 The Blue Hour Angelika Stars Over Colombo Yrida 1954 The Prisoner of the Maharaja Yrida 1955 Katharina von Weber 1958 Two Hearts in May Annemie Müller I'll Carry You in My Arms Ines Thormälen 1962 The Maharaja's blonde wife Yrida A single-cut of The Prisoner of the Maharaja and the Stars Over Colombo 1966 Playgirl Visitor at the Six Days of Berlin Scenes deleted 1974 Karl May Emma May 1988 Let's Go Crazy Comtessa 1991 75 Jahre UFA: Eine Deutsche Filmgeschichte Self 1992 Das bleibt, das kommt nie wieder Self 1993 The Trip back to Sweden - Kristina Söderbaum Self Night Train to Venice Euphemia Final film role 2009 Harlan – In the Shadow of Jew Süss Self (archival footage)

Television Year Title Role Notes 1973 Die große Rolle Self Jud Suess - the Nightmare Role 1992 We Have Ways of Making You Think Self Goebbels Master of Propaganda 1993 Der Bergdoktor Frau Landmann

Awards Award Year Category Nominated work Result Venice Film Festival 1942 Volpi Cup for Best Actress The Golden City