Hertha Thiele (8 May 1908 â€" 5 August 1984) was a German actress. She
is noted for her starring roles in then controversial stage plays and
films produced during Germany's Weimar Republic and the early years of
the Third Reich. After the post-war partition of Germany, Thiele
became a television star in East Germany. She is best remembered for
her portrayal of Manuela in the lesbian-themed film Mädchen in
Uniform (1931).One of her early drama teachers told Thiele "Either
you'll have a great stage career or nothing at all. You have a
Botticelli face but one which suggests depravity". Thiele began her
professional acting career in 1928 as a stage actress in Leipzig. In
1931, she was given the lead role in Gestern und heute, the film
adaptation of a play she had done there, but now called Mädchen in
Uniform, a tale set in a Prussian boarding school for girls. The film
had an all-female cast, and Thiele played Manuela, a 14-year-old
schoolgirl deeply infatuated with her teacher Fräulein von Bernburg,
played by Dorothea Wieck. Mädchen in Uniform was distributed
internationally and briefly made Thiele a star. She received thousands
of fan letters, mostly from women.In 1932, she starred with Ernst
Busch in Bertolt Brecht's Kuhle Wampe. In 1933, Thiele had a leading
role in Kleiner Mann, was nun? and reunited with Dorothea Wieck in
Anna and Elizabeth, another lesbian-themed film that was banned by the
Nazis soon after it opened and which she later said was the most
important work of her career. She also continued to work in theatre
during the early 1930s, including productions with Max Reinhardt
(Harmonie, 1932) and Veit Harlan (Veronika, 1935).Her career was
thwarted when the Nazi government approached her with repeated
requests to assist in the production of National Socialist propaganda.
During one meeting with propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels, who
advised Thiele to "familiarise" herself with National Socialism, she
replied "I don't blow with the wind each time it changes directions".
Although she made efforts to reach a workable understanding with
Goebbels, the Nazis had come to view her work as mostly subversive,
and she was excluded from the Reichstheater and Reichsfilmkammer. In
1937, she left Germany for Switzerland. It was another five years
before she was able to find acting work in Bern.
is noted for her starring roles in then controversial stage plays and
films produced during Germany's Weimar Republic and the early years of
the Third Reich. After the post-war partition of Germany, Thiele
became a television star in East Germany. She is best remembered for
her portrayal of Manuela in the lesbian-themed film Mädchen in
Uniform (1931).One of her early drama teachers told Thiele "Either
you'll have a great stage career or nothing at all. You have a
Botticelli face but one which suggests depravity". Thiele began her
professional acting career in 1928 as a stage actress in Leipzig. In
1931, she was given the lead role in Gestern und heute, the film
adaptation of a play she had done there, but now called Mädchen in
Uniform, a tale set in a Prussian boarding school for girls. The film
had an all-female cast, and Thiele played Manuela, a 14-year-old
schoolgirl deeply infatuated with her teacher Fräulein von Bernburg,
played by Dorothea Wieck. Mädchen in Uniform was distributed
internationally and briefly made Thiele a star. She received thousands
of fan letters, mostly from women.In 1932, she starred with Ernst
Busch in Bertolt Brecht's Kuhle Wampe. In 1933, Thiele had a leading
role in Kleiner Mann, was nun? and reunited with Dorothea Wieck in
Anna and Elizabeth, another lesbian-themed film that was banned by the
Nazis soon after it opened and which she later said was the most
important work of her career. She also continued to work in theatre
during the early 1930s, including productions with Max Reinhardt
(Harmonie, 1932) and Veit Harlan (Veronika, 1935).Her career was
thwarted when the Nazi government approached her with repeated
requests to assist in the production of National Socialist propaganda.
During one meeting with propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels, who
advised Thiele to "familiarise" herself with National Socialism, she
replied "I don't blow with the wind each time it changes directions".
Although she made efforts to reach a workable understanding with
Goebbels, the Nazis had come to view her work as mostly subversive,
and she was excluded from the Reichstheater and Reichsfilmkammer. In
1937, she left Germany for Switzerland. It was another five years
before she was able to find acting work in Bern.
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