Marianne Hoppe

Marianne Hoppe (26 April 1909 – 23 October 2002) was a German theatre and film actress.

Life and work

Born in Rostock, Hoppe became a leading lady of stage and films in Germany. She was born into a wealthy landowning family and was initially privately educated on her father's private estate. Later she attended school in Berlin and in Weimar, where she began to attend theatre.

Hoppe first performed at 17 as a member of Berlin's Deutsches Theater under director Max Reinhardt. In 1935 she was hired by the controversial German actor and Director of the Prussian State Theatre under the Third Reich, Gustaf Gründgens. They were married from 1936 to 1946, until their divorce. Speaking years after the marriage had ended Hoppe stated, "He was my love, but never my great love, that was work." Her role in Der Schimmelreiter (The Rider of the White Horse, 1934) made her famous almost overnight, while her "Aryan" face made her a darling of the Nazi elite.

Four years later after her divorce from Gründgens, Hoppe had a great success as Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, and increasingly played avant-garde roles, written by authors such as Heiner Müller (Quartett, 1994) and Thomas Bernhard, who became her partner in private life as well. She became a favourite of the young and iconoclastic directors Claus Peymann, Robert Wilson and Frank Castorf.

Partial filmography

The Judas of Tyrol (1933) - Josefa The Country Schoolmaster (1933) - Ursula Diewen The Rider on the White Horse (1934) - Elke Trouble with Jolanthe (1934) - Anna, her daughter Schwarzer Jäger Johanna (1934) - Johanna Luerssen Alles hört auf mein Kommando (1935) - Hella Bergson Sergeant Schwenke (1935) - Maria Schönborn, saleswoman at Floris flower shop Die Werft zum Grauen Hecht (1935) - Käthe Liebenow Anschlag auf Schweda (1935) - Regine Kessler When the Cock Crows (1936) - Marie A Woman of No Importance (1936) - Hester The Ruler (1937) - Inken Peters Capers (1937) - Mabel Atkinson Gabriele: eins, zwei, drei (1937) - Gabriele Brodersen The False Step (1939) - Effi Briest Congo Express (1939) - Renate Brinkmann Goodbye, Franziska (1941) - Franziska Tiemann Voice of the Heart (1942) - Felicitas Iversen Romance in a Minor Key (1943) - Madeleine I Need You (1944) - Julia Bach Das Leben geht weiter (1945) - Lenore Carius The Lost Face (1948) - Johanna Stegen Second Hand Destiny (1949) - Irene Scholz Only One Night (1950) - Die Frau The Man of My Life (1954) - Helga Dargatter Thirteen Old Donkeys (1958) - Martha Krapp The Strange Countess (1961) - Mary Pinder, née Moron Treasure of Silver Lake (1962) - Mrs. Butler Massacre at Marble City (1964) - Mrs. Brendel Ten Little Indians (1965) - Frau Grohmann (1967, TV miniseries) - Madame Brassac The Wrong Move (1975) - Mutter (1983) - Marianne Francesca (1987) Bei Thea (1988, TV film) - Thea Ammer Schloß Königswald (1988) - Gräfin Hohenlohe Tassilo (1991, TV series) - Maximiliane Death Came As a Friend (1991, TV film) - Frau Weinstein (final film role)