Berta Drews

Personal

Vocation

Notable

Family

German actress who appeared in more than sixty films from 1933 to 1983, along with noted stage and television roles, later penning an autobiography. In 1981 she received the Filmband in Gold in honour of her many years and outstanding work in German film. She studied at Max Reinhardt's acting school at the Deutsches Theater. In 1925 she was engaged in Stuttgart and played from 1926 to 1930 at the Munich Kammerspiele. In 1930 she returned to Berlin, appearing first at the Volksbühne, at the Staatstheater from 1933, and then from 1938 to 1945 as a member of the ensemble of the Berlin Schiller Theater, whose director since 1937 was her husband Heinrich George. From her marriage with George came two sons, Jan and Götz George, who also became actors. After the war, she worked until 1949 at the Hebbel Theater and returned in 1951 to the Schiller Theater where she played, among other roles, "Eliza" in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and "Winnie" in Samuel Beckett's absurd two-act Happy Days. At the same time she was a popular film and television actress, for example, appearing in Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter (1956). In Volker Schlöndorff's film adaptation of the novel The Tin Drum she played Oskar Matzerath's grandmother Anna Koljaiczek as an older woman. In addition to a biography of her husband, she published her autobiography Wohin des Wegs? in 1986. She died on 10 April 1987, aged 85, in Berlin, Germany. Link to Wikipedia biography