Peter Sturm

Josef Michel Dischel (24 August 1909 – 10 May 1984), known by his adopted stage name Peter Sturm, was an Austrian and an East German actor.

Biography

Early life Dischel

Dischel had taken up an apprenticeship as a textile merchant, but abandoned it. After completing his studies, he assumed the stage name Peter Sturm. He joined the Social Democratic Party of Austria when he was nineteen years old, and later turned to an active member of the Communist Party of Austria, that was declared illegal by Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. In 1935, he was convicted of high treason and condemned to two and a half years in prison. Sturm eventually served eighteen months, in the Stein an der Donau prison In 1936, subsequent to his release, he joined the cast of Brettl am Alsergrund, a political, left-leaning kabarett in Vienna's Alsergrund district, that was managed by Leon Askin and commonly known as Das ABC Kabarett. The actor was one of the cabaret's three declared communists, alongside Jura Soyfer and Robert Klein-Lörk.

Holocaust In May 1938, after the Anschluss, Sturm was arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp. In August, he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was held in the same barrack with actor Fritz Grünbaum. He was registered as an Austrian political prisoner. In April 1939, Sturm was released from Buchenwald and allowed to leave Germany. He emigrated to Italy, spending three months in Milan. Then, he illegally crossed the border into France, settling in Marseille. After the Second World War broke out in September, he was interned in the Camp des Milles, where he acted in the camp's makeshift theater. On 27 June 1941, shortly after France surrendered to Germany, the camp's residents were to be evacuated on a train to Bayonne. Sturm managed to escape. He lived in Marseille until August 1942, when he was deported to the Drancy internment camp, from which he was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was held in the Blechhammer sub-camp, where he was forced to serve as a barber. Occasionally, when the guards authorized it, he participated in theater evenings. In January 1945, the prisoners were evacuated to Buchenwald in a death march. Sturm survived it and wrote an account on the march shortly after arriving in Buchenwald. He joined the camp's communist underground organization. While in Buchenwald, he was a member of the building detachment headed by Robert Siewert. During the Holocaust, his mother was murdered in Auschwitz. in the city's Wieden district, then in the Soviet-administrated zone. The theater, opened in 1948, was founded by communist exiles who returned to Austria after the end of the war. Sturm made his debut on screen in the 1956 film adaptation of the operetta Gasparone. During the same year - after the Soviet withdrawal from Austria left it without financial and political support - the Scala had to be closed. With several other fellow actors from the theater, Sturm left Vienna and emigrated to the German Democratic Republic, settling in East Berlin. In 1960, he performed the role of August Rose, a Buchenwald prisoner who betrays his friends, in a television production based on Bruno Apitz's novel Naked Among Wolves. On 30 March 1961 Sturm was awarded the Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic. In 1963, when he was requested to play August Rose once more for Frank Beyer's film remake of the series, Apitz and Beyer had to convince him to agree. Sturm was badly depressed by the work on Naked Among Wolves, and became very ill after the filming ended. He was involved in the commemoration of Buchenwald's victims until his departure.

Sturm had a long career as an actor with DEFA and DFF in East Germany, appearing in more than fifty cinema and television productions.

Filmography + Film Year Title Role Notes 1956 Gasparone Minor role 1959 Goods for Catalonia Mr. Dupont 1959 An Old Love Heinrich Rantsch 1960 One of Us Minor role 1960 Master Puntila and His Servant Matti Minor role 1960 No Trouble with Cleopatra Mathias Kahlow 1960 The Dog In The Moors Karl Schultz 1960 The Hedgehog: The Woman of his Dreams Department chief Krause Short 1961 Stone Age Ballad Berger 1961 Professor Mamlock Doctor Hirsch 1961 Death Has a Face Old man in the morgue 1961 The Hedgehog: Fairly Good Improvement Jochen Emsig Short 1962 On the Sunny Side Intendant Pabst 1962 Julian Boell´s Discovery Wilhelm Zoch 1962 Einer von uns 1962 Der Tod hat ein Gesicht Alter Mann im Leichenschauhaus 1963 Naked Among Wolves August Rose 1963 Reserved for the Death Train conductor 1965 As Long as There is Life in Me Ober 1965 Hartmann 1966 Living Ware Mahlmann 1968 Heroin Commisar Doboka 1970 Liberation I: The Fire Bulge Colonel-General Walter Model 1971 Liberation III: The Direction of the Main Blow Field Marshal Walter Model 1971 KLK Calling PTZ - The Red Orchestra Krapotschkin 1974 Jacob the Liar Schmidt 1979 Just Put Flowers on the Roof Hotel receptionist 1980 Max and Seven-and-a-Half Boys Max 1980 Johann Sebastian Bach's Forgotten Journey to Glory Neighbour 1981 The Daughters' Hour Brigadier Fuchs 1981 The Colony Rudi Baden

+ Television Year Title Role Notes 1960 Naked Among Wolves August Rose 1962 David and Goliath Sophus Möller 1962 Television Pitaval Uncredited role Episode 2: Shot While Fleeing 1963 Television Pitaval Councillor Heigl Episode 3: The Heyde-Sawade Affair 1963 The Trail Leads to the 7th Heaven Detective Superintendent Müller All five episodes 1963 Vanina Vanini Asdrubale Vanini 1965 The Man from Heinitz Wünsche 1965-1966 Doctor Schlüter Professor Tolset 1965 Moments of Joy Mühlmann 1966 The Persians Uncredited role 1966 The Investigation: An Oratorio in Eleven Acts Arthur Breitwieser 1967 Little Man, What Now? Salesman in the bed store 1967 Ruhr in Flames Hövelmann 1969 Krupp and Krause Piachowsky 1969 The Lady from Genua Uncredited role 1970 Every Man Dies Alone Uncredited role 1972 The Pictures of Witness Schattmann Elias Lernamnn 1974 Late Season Psychiatrist 1975 Police Call 110 Old man Episode no. 32: A Case without Witnesses 1977 The Love and the Queen Sir Joshua Farnaby 1979 The Prosecutor Has the Floor Doctor Feigel Episode no. 58: To Celebrate this Day 1980 Regina or the Trap Ludwig Blume 1980 Outside in Heidedorf Harmonica player 1980 An Advertisement in the Newspaper Alfred Just 1981 Jockey Monika Mr. Zaubel Episode no. 6: Inventors Love Practicality 1981 The Uninvited Guest Uncredited role Part 2 1982 Hotel Polan and its Guests Doctor Levi / Doctor Silberstein 1983 Martin Luther Hans Luther 1983 Evening in Kelch Wirt 1983 Bruno H. Bürgel - Berlin's Heaven August Jost 1983 The Stage is Set Uncredited role (final appearance)

+ Voice actor Year Title Role Notes 1958 Naked Among Wolves Pippig Radio drama 1960 First Spaceship on Venus Professor Sołtyk Dubbing character in the German version 1968 Hauptmann Florian von der Mühle Police chief Dubbing Rolf Hoppe; voice only