Hanna Schygulla

Hanna Schygulla — Biography

Born to German parents, Hanna Schygulla came into the world on 25 December 1943 in Königshütte, now Chorzów in Poland; her father, drafted as an infantryman, was captured and held prisoner in Italy until 1948, while she and her mother fled as refugees to Munich in 1945 amid the expulsion of the region's German population.

Studying acting in Munich, she crossed paths in 1965 with director Rainer Werner Fassbinder and joined his troupe, becoming a leading figure of New German Cinema; a pay dispute during the 1972 filming of Effi Briest kept the two apart for years until they reunited for The Marriage of Maria Braun in 1978.

That role brought her the Silver Bear at the 1979 Berlin Film Festival, and Marco Ferreri's Storia di Piera earned her the best actress prize at Cannes in 1983; in 2010 the Berlinale honoured her whole body of work with an Honorary Golden Bear.

Based in Paris from 1981 until 2014 before relocating to Berlin, she appeared in Erden Kıral's Mavi Sürgün, on the exile of writer Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, and kept working with directors such as Wim Wenders and Fatih Akın. Still performing as a chanson singer, Schygulla continues to take film roles today.