Biographies and Filmographies

Barbara Schnitzler
Anita
Barbara Schnitzler was born on February 19, 1953 in Berlin, where she trained at the Ernst Busch Academy for
the Performing Arts. Her first engagement was at the Theater der Freundschaft in Berlin; since 1977, she has
been a permanent member of the Deutsches Theater ensemble. Schnitzler has worked with directors, including
Frido Solter, Michael Thalheimer, Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jürgen Gosch, and has acted in plays including
Die Ratten, Bitterer Honig and Sugardollies. She played the lead in Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant (dir.
Philipp Preuss), based on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s play. In 2010, she performed the solo play Das Jahr
magischen Denkens (dir. Gabriele Heinz) at the Deutsches Theater. Since 2001, Schnitzler has performed Jazz,
Lyric, Prosa evenings and readings.
Schnitzler has also performed in many television and film productions. In Iris Gusner’s successful film Alle
meine Mädchen, she played the young, emancipated Anita, and former East German audiences still remember
her as the teacher in Rolf Losansky’s children’s film classic, Der lange Ritt zur Schule.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2011
2011
2005
1993
1993
1989
1984
1983
1981
1979
1978
1977-2000
1977
1977
1975
1975
Die Stunde des Wolfes (The Hour of the Wolf, TV)
Fenster zum Sommer (Summer Window)
Stages
Mein Name ist Marlene Dietrich (My Name Is Marlene Dietrich, TV)
Der Biberpelz (The Beaver Coat, TV)
Rückkehr aus der Wüste (Return from the Desert)
Die dritte Frau (The Third Woman, TV)
Martin Luther (TV)
Der lange Ritt zur Schule (The Long Ride to School)
Alle meine Mädchen (All My Girls)
Bonny’s Blues (TV)
Polizeiruf 110 (Police Call 110, TV series)
Zwei Krawatten (Two Neckties, TV)
Dantons Tod (Danton’s Death, TV)
Im Schlaraffenland (In the Land of Milk and Honey, TV)
Lisa (TV)
All My
GirlsA film by Iris Gusner
The Cast • All My Girls • A DVD Release by the DEFA Film Library
1
Madeleine Lierck-Wien
Susi
Madeleine Lierck-Wien was born in 1949 in Kempten, West Germany, and her family moved to East Germany in
1953. Throughout her career she has played in both movies and television productions. She performed for the
first time in the television production Irrlicht und Feuer, before studying acting at the Konrad Wolf Academy for
Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg from 1966 to 1970. While a student she acted in Heisser Sommer,
which became a cult film. Later she acted alongside her father, the actor and cabaret artist Werner Lierck, in
the comedy Nicht schummeln, Liebling! More recently, she played in Margarethe von Trotta’s Das Versprechen,
an award-winning story about lovers separated by the Wall. Since 2011, she has been acting in the popular
television series Rote Rosen.
Madeleine Lierck-Wien also has a distinguished career in theater. She has played at the Meininger Theater
and different cabarets in Berlin, Potsdam and Dresden. She has developed and presented evening-long entertainment programs, including an Erich Kästner evening and Da lacht der Mond (The Moon Laughs), a program
written and directed by Lierck-Wien, in which she shared the stage with singer Eva-Maria Pieckert and ballet
dancer Angela Reinhardt. Critics described this programas “funny, sexy and poetic!” Madeleine Lierck-Wien is
married to actor Dieter Wien and lives in Lüneburg.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2011
2009
2008
2002
1999
1995
1990
1989
1985
1981
1979
1979
1976
1975
1972
1970
1967
1966
Rote Rosen (Red Roses, TV series)
Die Liebe und Victor (Love and Victor)
Wir sind das Volk (The Final Days)
Wie verliebt man seinen Vater? (Finding a Wife for Dad)
Zwei in einem Boot (Two in a Boat)
Das Versprechen (The Promise)
Flugstaffel Meinecke (Flight Squadron Meinecke, TV series)
Der Drache Daniel (Daniel the Dragon)
Franziska (TV)
Ein Engel im Taxi (An Angel in the Taxi, TV)
Alle meine Mädchen (All My Girls)
Abschied vom Frieden (Farewell to Peace, TV series)
Alle meine Kinder (All My Children, TV)
Frau Jenny Treibel (Ms. Jenny Treibel, TV)
Nicht schummeln, Liebling (Don’t Cheat, Darling!)
Pawluscha (TV)
Heisser Sommer (Hot Summer)
Irrlicht und Feuer (Will-o’-the-Wisp and Fire, TV)
All My
GirlsA film by Iris Gusner
The Cast • All My Girls • A DVD Release by the DEFA Film Library
2
Monica Bielenstein
Ella
Monica Bielenstein was born in 1948 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where her Swiss parents had emigrated in 1935.
While her father was a diplomat in East Germany, she studied acting at the Ernst Busch Academy for Performing Arts in Berlin from 1966 to 1970. Her acting debuts were at the Maxim Gorki Theater and Theater der Freundschaft in Berlin; she has also played at the Berliner Kammerspiele (1980) and Tribüne Berlin (1993).
Bielenstein has acted in films for both cinema and television. One of her first roles was in the East German historic movie Schüsse unterm Galgen, and she played Ella, one of the female leads, in Iris Gusner’s Alle meine
Mädchen. After moving to West Germany in 1980, she worked increasingly in television. Hers is also the
German voice used for dubbing many international stars, including Ellen Barkin, Helen Mirren, Diane Keaton,
Grace Kelly, Susan Sarandon, Cybill Shepherd and Emma Thompson. Since 1988, Bielenstein has worked as a
dubbing director and written dubbing scripts.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2010
2009
2005
1998
1993
1993
1979
1973-75
1973
1972
1971
1968
Kreuzfahrt ins Glück – Sevilla (Cruise to Happiness – Seville)
Traumschiff (Dream Boat, TV)
La dolce Rita (TV)
Anna Marx
Käthe Kollwitz
Sommerliebe (Summer Love)
Alle meine Mädchen (All My Girls)
Das unsichtbare Visier (The Invisible Target, TV series)
Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts (From the Life of a Good-for-Nothing)
Die grosse Reise der Agathe Schweigert (Agathe Schweigert’s Big Trip, TV)
Frühling 46 (Spring ‘46, TV)
Schüsse unterm Galgen (Shots under the Gallows)
All My
GirlsA film by Iris Gusner
The Cast • All My Girls • A DVD Release by the DEFA Film Library
3
Lissy Tempelhof
Maria
Lissy Tempelhof was born in 1929 in Berlin, where she experienced WWII as a teenager. To earn her living after
the war, she worked as a Trümmerfrau clearing rubble and, later on, as a streetcar conductor and secretary.
After playing in amateur theater groups and cabarets in her free time, she got work as an actress at the Theater
Anklam. She studied at the Ernst Buch Academy for Performing Arts in Berlin from 1950 to 1953. Engagements at
prestigious theaters followed, including at the Staatstheater Dresden and the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. In
1963, she moved to the Deutsches Theater Berlin, where she was a member of the ensemble for over 35 years,
working with directors including Adolf Dresen, Friedo Soler and Benno Besson.
Parallel to her work in theater, Tempelhof has played in many movies and television productions since the early
1950s. Her first leading role was as doctor Inge Ruoff, a member of the Nazi party who sides with a prominent
Jewish doctor, in Konrad Wolf’s Professor Mamlock. She also played in Heiner Carow’s WWII movie Die
Russen kommen, which was banned in 1968 and not shown until 1987. Tempelhof was awarded the Jury and
Audience Award at East Germany’s National Film Festival in 1980 for her performance as the women’s brigade
leader Maria Boltzin in Iris Gusner’s Alle meine Mädchen. Since the 1990s, she has mainly acted in television
productions and series, including Der Landarzt and Für alle Fälle Stefanie.
Lissy Tempelhof is also known as a chasonnière and sang the title song in Sonnensucher (Sun Seekers, 1957,
dir. Konrad Wolf). She has released several records, including Nie bist du ohne Nebendir (You Are Never without Beside You, 1973) based on lyrics by Joachim Ringelnatz, and Begeistert von Berlin (Thrilled by Berlin,
1972). Tempelhof lives in Berlin.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2012
2011
2008
2003
2000-03
1999
1998-2000
1983
1981
1979
1976-85
1972
1968
1968/87
1965
1961
1957
Die letzte Spur (The Last Trace, TV series)
Herzdamen 2 (Queens of Hearts 2, TV)
Hallo Robbie! (Hi Robby!, TV)
Der Bernsteinfischer (The Amber Fisher, TV)
Der Landarzt (The Country Doctor, TV series)
Sturmzeit (Riding the Storm, TV series)
Für alle Fälle Stefanie (In All Cases Stefanie, TV series)
Erscheinen Pflicht (Attendance Required)
Wäre die Erde nicht rund (Were the Earth Not Round)
Alle meine Mädchen (All My Girls)
Polizeiruf 110 (Police Call 110, TV series)
Leichensache Zernik (Murder Case Zernik)
Effi Briest (TV)
Die Russen kommen (The Russians Are Coming)
Fräulein Schmetterling (Miss Butterfly)
Professor Mamlock
Emilia Galotti
All My
GirlsA film by Iris Gusner
The Cast • All My Girls • A DVD Release by the DEFA Film Library
4
Viola Schweizer
Kerstin
Viola Schweizer was born in 1954 in Berlin. After taking private classes, she studied at the Ernst Busch
Academy for the Performing Arts in Berlin. While still a student, she was engaged at the Komische Oper in
Berlin. Schweizer’s 1974 screen debut was in the TV series Polizeiruf 110. She joined the East German DEFA
Film Studio at the end of 1970s, and the part of the worker Kerstin in Alle meine Mädchen became one of her
memorable film roles. Since 2001, she has worked as a director for off-theaters and school theater productions.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
1998
1990
1989
1989
1980
1980
1979
1979
1974-89
Der Handymörder (The Cellphone Murderer, TV)
Zwischen Pankow and Zehlendorf (Between Pankow and Zehlendorf)
Abschiedsdisco (Farewell Disco)
Johanna (TV series)
Pugowitza
Die Drachenprinzessin (The Dragon Princess, TV)
Alle meine Mädchen (All My Girls)
Die Gänsehirtin am Brunnen (The Goose-Girl at the Well, TV)
Polizeiruf 110 (Police Call 110, TV series)
All My
GirlsA film by Iris Gusner
The Cast • All My Girls • A DVD Release by the DEFA Film Library
5
Evelin Splitt
Gertrud
Evelin Splitt was born in 1955 in Berlin. After an apprenticeship as a clockmaker, she studied at the Academy
for the Performing Arts in Leipzig and trained in Dresden. In 1979, Splitt joined the ensemble of the Theater
Dessau. Her role as Gertrud in Iris Gusner’s Alle meine Mädchen was her film debut. Her next film was the East
German/Hungarian co-production Veszélyes játékok, based on a children’s book by Béla Balázs.
(Unfortunately, we have not succeeding in discovering any further information about Evelin Splitt.)
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
1979
1979
Veszélyes játékok (Serious Games)
Alle meine Mädchen (All My Girls)
All My
GirlsA film by Iris Gusner
The Cast • All My Girls • A DVD Release by the DEFA Film Library
6
Andrzej Piecznyński
Ralf
Andrzej Pieczyńsnki was born in 1956 in Pobiedziska, Poland. In 1982 he graduated as an actor from the Theater Academy in Warsaw. Already in 1979, he had had his debut at Warsaw’s National Theater, after which he
worked as an actor at various theaters in Warsaw, Urban and Gdynia. From 1989 to 1992, he played at the Theater am Ufer in Berlin and taught acting and directing at Die Etage, a performing arts school in Berlin. More
recently, Pieczyński has worked in a range of roles in theater. In 2011, he directed and designed the set for the
premiere of the play Krzyk (Scream), by Anna Burzyńska, at the Juliusz Osterwa Theater in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland.
Beside his work in theater, Pieczyński has worked with many celebrated film directors, including Agnieszka
Holland, Frank Beyer, Wim Wenders, Jerzy Hoffman and Jerzy Kawalerowicz. He has also acted in many internationally-known films, including the triple Oscar winner The Pianist (dir. Roman Polanski), and Katyń (dir.
Andrzej Wajda) nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2007
2002
2001
1999
1993
1990
1986
1985
1982
1978
1983
1979
1977
Katyń
The Pianist
Quo Vadis
Ogniem i Mieczen (With Fire and Sword)
In weiter Ferne, so nah! (Faraway, so Close!)
Marie Grubbe (TV)
Kindheit (Childhoood)
Der Schimmelreiter (The Dykemaster, TV)
Der Aufenthalt (Turning Point)
P.S.
Wielki Szu (Big Shar)
Alle meine Mädchen (All My Girls)
Zdjecia próbne (Screen Tests)
All My
GirlsA film by Iris Gusner
The Cast • All My Girls • A DVD Release by the DEFA Film Library
7