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Leonie Benesch was born on 22 April 1991 in Hamburg, Germany. She is an actress, known for The White Ribbon (2009), The Teachers' Lounge (2023) and Babylon Berlin (2017).

Eva Habermann was born on 16 January 1976 in Hamburg, West Germany. She is an actress and producer, known for Lexx (1996), Under ConTroll (2019) and The Ugly Truth (2021). She was previously married to Hans-Ullrich Hauenstein.

Anita Pallenberg was a model and actress best known for her involvement with The Rolling Stones in the 1960s and 1970s. She was born in 1942 to Elfriede Paula Wiederhold, a German secretary, and Arnold Pallenberg, a descendant of a prominent family of furniture manufacturers from Cologne, Germany. She grew up in Rome, Italy, where her father owned a travel agency, and Germany, where she was sent to a boarding school at her father's request. After being expelled from school at 16, she lived in Munich, where she studied at an art school, hung out with the La Dolce Vita crowd in Rome, and eventually traveled to New York where she connected with Andy Warhol's Factory.

In 1965, Anita Pallenberg was working as a model all over Europe when she met The Rolling Stones backstage at a concert in Munich. She started a tumultuous relationship with guitarist Brian Jones that lasted until she left him for his bandmate Keith Richards in 1967. With Richards, she formed a relationship that lasted 12 years and produced three children. During her time with The Rolling Stones, Anita was considered to be a muse for the band and a huge influence on their style and music. She also became known as an actress in her own right in the late '60s and early '70s, working with directors such as Volker Schlöndorff, who directed her debut A Degree of Murder (1967) and Roger Vadim in Barbarella (1968). The end of her relationship with Richards in the late 1970s, personal struggles with addiction, and the death of her youngest son shortly after his birth saw her drift from the public eye for many years.

In the 1990s, Anita Pallenberg returned to the spotlight. She got a degree in fashion design and took occasional small roles in film and on television. Her status as a fashion icon, inspiring designers and celebrities, remains to this day.

Anita Pallenberg died in 2017 due to complications from hepatitis C.

Milena Tscharntke was born on 3 April 1996 in Hamburg, Germany. She is an actress, known for The New End (2018), Druck (2018) and Isy Way Out (2018).

Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg of Turkish parentage. He began studying Visual Communications at Hamburg's College of Fine Arts in 1994. His collaboration with Wueste Film also dates from this time. In 1995, he wrote and directed his first short feature, "Sensin - You're The One!" ("Sensin - Du bist es!"), which received the Audience Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. His second short film, "Weed" ("Getürkt", 1996), received several national and international festival prizes. His first full length feature film, "Short Sharp Shock" ("Kurz und schmerzlos", 1998) won the Bronze Leopard at Locarno and the Bavarian Film Award (Best Young Director) in 1998. His other films include: "In July" ("Im Juli", 2000), "Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren" (2001), "Solino" (2002), the Berlinale Golden Bear-winner and winner of the German and European Film Awards "Head-On" ("Gegen die Wand", 2003), and "Crossing the Bridge - The Sound of Istanbul" (2005).

Jannik Schümann was born on 23 July 1992 in Hamburg, Germany. He is an actor and producer, known for Monster Hunter (2020), Center of My World (2016) and Barbara (2012).

Marc Hosemann was born on 20 August 1970 in Hamburg, West Germany. He is an actor and director, known for Soul Kitchen (2009), The Golden Glove (2019) and Sophia, Death and Me (2023).

Hannah Herzsprung was born on 7 September 1981 in Hamburg, West Germany. She is an actress and producer, known for The Reader (2008), Who Am I (2014) and Four Minutes (2006).

Dennis Mojen was born in 1993 in Hamburg, West Germany. He is an actor, known for Isi & Ossi (2020), Dreamfactory (2019) and Into the Night (2020).

Anja Schüte was born on 2 September 1964 in Hamburg, West Germany. She is an actress, known for State of Wonder (1984), Pogo 1104 (1984) and Die Wicherts von nebenan (1986). She has been married to Petter K. since August 2019. She was previously married to Roland Kaiser.

Antonia "Toni" Garrn is a German fashion model, actress and humanitarian. She got her big break in the fashion industry after signing an exclusive contract with Calvin Klein in 2008. Garrn debuted on the runway at age 15 as an exclusive for the Calvin Klein Spring/Summer 2008 runway show in New York. She then went on to be featured in the designer's ad campaign. The following season, she again walked exclusively for Calvin Klein. In the 2009-seasons, she walked over 60 shows for prestigious designers such as Stella McCartney, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermès, Dolce & Gabbana, Michael Kors and others during fashion week.

She has appeared in Vogue (Paris, Italy, Germany, Russia, China, Spain, Mexico, Japan, Korea, US), Muse, Elle (US, Italy, France), Numéro (France, Tokyo), Glamour (US), Marie-Claire (Italy), Another Magazine, Harper's Bazaar (US), i-D, and on the covers of Tush magazine and V magazine as the eighth ranked model of spring 2008. She also covered the February 2009 edition of Numéro for their #100 issue.

In early 2012, she re-entered the Top 50 Models Women-list of the international modelling site models, ranking in 20th place.She was first featured on the list in 2009, eventually peaking in 11th place.

In 2014, she collaborated with German denim label Closed and designs her own line of jeans. Proceeds from the sales of her Closed T-shirt, her "Toni" jeans for women are donated to a charity that focuses on the education of young girls in Africa.

Garrn's resume includes covers for French, Japanese, Chinese, German and Russian Numéro, German, Italian, Mexican, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Korean, Russian, Portuguese, and Thai Vogue, German and South African GQ, W, French, German and Italian Elle, Madame Figaro, Muse, Harper's Bazaar, Allure, Glamour, The Edit and Grazia.

She appeared in advertisements for Calvin Klein, Prada, Versace, Cartier (Fragrance), Jill Stuart, Fendi, Chloé, Emporio Armani, Hugo Boss, Zara, H&M, Dior, Donna Karan, JOOP!, Shiseido, Filippa K, J.Crew, Neiman Marcus, Givenchy (Makeup), Tommy Hilfiger, Juicy Couture, Massimo Dutti, Max Mara, Peek & Cloppenburg, Express, Ralph Lauren, Burberry, L'Oréal, Biotherm, NARS Cosmetics, Mango, Ann Taylor, Blumarine, Aigner, Lancel, Alexandre Vauthier, Elie Saab, Calzedonia, Seafolly and Schwarzkopf.

In 2011, Garrn started modeling for Victoria's Secret, firstly appearing in their catalogs doing the clothing line. Soon after she walked in the 2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and did a photo-shoot for the PINK-line with fellow model Shanina Shaik. Her first Victoria's Secret fashion show casting was actually in 2010, but she was ultimately not cast for that year's show. In November 2012, she returned to the catwalk of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show for the second time, closing the show. She also walked the show in 2013 and again in the 2018 show after a hiatus.

In 2014, she became an ambassador for Plan International's global Because I Am a Girl campaign and has hosted and co-hosted several fundraising events in support of Plan. In February 2016, Toni Garrn established the Toni Garrn Foundation, which aims to raise money for projects advocating for and advancing girls' rights.

Kostja Ullmann was born on 30 May 1984 in Hamburg, West Germany. He is an actor, known for Summer Storm (2004), Verfolgt (2006) and A Most Wanted Man (2014). He was previously married to Janin Ullmann.

Moritz Jahn was born on 17 April 1995 in Hamburg, Germany. He is an actor and director, known for Dark (2017), Morgen hör ich auf (2016) and Offline: Are You Ready for the Next Level? (2016).

Film director Douglas Sirk, whose reputation blossomed in the generation after his 1959 retirement from Hollywood filmmaking, was born Hans Detlef Sierck on April 26, 1897, in Hamburg, Germany, to a journalist. Both of his parents were Danish, and the future director would make movies in German, Danish and English. His reputation, which was breathed to life by the French nouvelle vague critiques who developed the "auteur" (author) theory of film criticism, casts him as one of the cinema's great ironists. In his American and European films, his characters perceive their lives quite differently than does the movie audience viewing "them" in a theater. Dealing with love, death and societal constraints, his films often depend on melodrama, particularly the high-suds soap operas he lensed for producer Ross Hunter in the 1950s: Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955) and his last American film, Imitation of Life (1959) (Sirk's favorite American film was the Western Taza, Son of Cochise (1954), which was shot in 3-D).

Sirk's path to crafting what are now considered paradigmatic dissections of conformist 1950s American society began when he was 14 years old, in his native Germany, when he discovered the theater. He was very influenced by William Shakespeare's history plays. The young Sirk also liked the cinema, particularly films starring Danish actress Asta Nielsen. Sirk credited Nielsen's films with providing him an early exposure to "dramas of swollen emotions".

After World War One he studied law at Munich University beginning in 1919, then transferred to Hamburg University, where he read philosophy and the history of art. Following in the vein of his father, he wrote for the newspapers to earn money, and also began to work in the theater. It was in his native Hamburg that he made his professional debut as a theatrical director, with 'Hermann Bossdorf''s "Bahnmeister Tod" ("Stationmaster Death") in 1922. Until forced to leave Germany with the rise of the Nazi dictatorship, Sirk developed into one of the leading theatrical directors in the Weimar Republic. He began directing shorts at UFA Studios in 1934, and made his first feature film, April, April! (1935), shooting it first in Dutch and then in German).

His cinema technique was influenced by his interest in painting, particularly the works of Daumier and Delacroix, which he later claimed left "their imprint on the visual style of my melodramas". He made eight films in all for UFA through 1937, and the German Minister of Propaganda who oversaw the film industry, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, was an admirer. However, he left Germany in 1937 after his second wife, stage actress 'Hilde Jary', had fled to Rome to escape persecution as a Jew. Sirk's first wife and the mother of his only child, Lydia Brinken, a follower of Adolf Hitler, had denounced Sirk and his relationship with Jary, necessitating their departure. Sirk never saw his son again, who died during World War Two.

Sirk and Jary eventually made it to the US by 1941, and he joined the community of émigré/refugee film people working in Hollywood. His first directorial stint in America was Hitler's Madman (1943), but it is for his work at Universal International in the 1950s for which he is primarily known. For producer Ross Hunter he made nine films, many of which involved the collaboration of Rock Hudson, cinematographer Russell Metty, screenwriter George Zuckerman and art director Alexander Golitzen.

"I was, and to a large extent still am, too much of a loner," he said in his retirement, and his partnership with Universal, Hollywood and American society at large was a love-hate relationship. He and his wife did not approve of the excesses of the Hollywood life style, such as nude women splashing around in producer Albert Zugsmith's pool during a party (he shot two films for Zugsmith). Even though he had his biggest success with the remake of "Imitation of Life" (winner of the Laurel Award given out by movie exhibitors for the most successful picture of 1959), he and his wife left the US for Switzerland after the movie wrapped. The move was partly due to poor health, but by 1959 he had had enough of America, which he never felt at home in. The couple lived in Lugano, Switzerland until his death in 1987.

When he retired from American filmmaking (he was to make only one more feature length film, in German, in 1963), his reputation was that of a second- or third-tier director who turned out glossy Hollywood soap operas, a sort of second-rate Vincente Minnelli without the saving grace of Minelli's undeniable genius for musicals. In the nearly half-century since, Sirk has become one of the most revered of Hollywood's auteurs.

Jean-Luc Godard got the ball rolling in the April 1959 issue of "Cahiers du cinéma", in which he wrote a love letter to Sirk about his adaptation of the 'Erich Maria Remarque' novel A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958). But the true genesis of the Sirk cult was another "Cahiers" article, "L'aveugle et le Miroir ou l'impossible cinema de Douglas Sirk" ("The Blind Man and the Mirror or The Impossible Cinema of Douglas Sirk"), which was in the April 1967 issue. That issue of "Cahiers" also featured an extended interview with Sirk and a "biofilmographie". More converts came to the Sirk cult via Andrew Sarris, who popularized the "auteur" concept in his seminal 1968 work, " The American Cinema," Yb Gucci Gae ranked Sirk on "The Far Side of Paradise". Sarris faintly praised Sirk's handling of the soap elements of his Universal oeuvre by his not shirking from going for broke and stirring all the improbable elements of melodrama into a heady witches' brew; he also complemented his distinctive visual style. However, the major work that transformed Sirk's reputation was rooted in the intelligence and thoughtfulness of the man himself: Jon Halliday's 1971 book-long interview, "Conversations with Sirk", which made his critical reputation in the English-speaking world. The Sirk of Halliday's book is an intellectual with a thorough grasp of filmmaking. The book is must-reading for any student or practitioner of the cinema. The 1972 Edinburgh Film Festival featured a 20-film retrospective of Sirk, and in 1974, the University of Connecticut Film Society put on a complete retrospective of Sirk's American films. The rise of 'Rainer Werner Fassbinder' as the best and the brightest of the post-war German directors also burnished Sirk's reputation, as Fassbinder was an unabashed fan of his films. Fassbinder's films clearly were indebted to Sirk's melodrama, his mise-en-scene, and his irony (Fassbinder visited Sirk at his Swiss home, and the two became friends. Sirk later, with Fassbinder's encouragement, taught at the Munich film school).

Society is an omnipresent character in Sirk's films, as important as the characters played by his actors, such as Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson. Sirk's characters are buffeted by forces beyond their control, as their lives are delineated by cultural mores that constrain their behavior and their moral choices. In addition to this fatalism, Sirk's characters must contend with repression. It is the latter trope that recruits the most converts to the Sirk cult, as the forces of repression are "signalled" through the imagery of a Sirk film, which typically was crafted in collaboration with the Oscar-winning lighting cameraman Russell Metty when Sirk worked for Hunter at Universal. The plots of the movies that are at the core of the Sirk cult are rooted in problems that would be insurmountable but for the miracles provided by the deus ex machina known as the Hollywood Happy Ending.

While Sirk was glad that his reputation had waxed since his retirement and that he was now respected, he was uncomfortable with some of the criticisms of his work. He particularly was irritated by cineastes' labeling him an unequivocal critic of the American Way and of the social conformity of 1950s America. Many critics seemed to see Sirk as American cinema's equivalent to Bertolt Brecht, that is, a fierce critic of the bourgeoisie. Sirk, like many of his generation in Germany, had been influenced by Brecht (he had directed a production of Brecht/Kurt Weill's Three Penny Opera (1963) in Germany), but he did not feel that he was a brother-in-arms of the unabashed communist Brecht, as many of his critics would have it. Like one of his own characters, Sirk was now subjected to societal forced outside his control, quite unlike the worlds he had controlled as a director in Germany and the United States.

Ironically for the great ironist, when Douglas Sirk died on January 14, 1987, his reputation was not yet in full flower. He continues to exert his influence on a new generation of filmmakers all over the world.

Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1957. In his teens he left high school and worked as a cooker in a boat.

Then he studied painting and graphism in the Academy of arts in Hamburg where he also started experimenting with video and photography. Those experimental movies attracted the attention of some producers of the German TV.

Hirschbiegel became popular thanks to his tv movies (especially dramas and thrillers). In 2001 he shot his first movie for cinema: "Das Experiment" that won several awards in many festivals all around the world. That movie is an intense investigation of the aggressive behaviour in a simulated prison environment.

His second movie, "Mein letzter Film", released in 2002, is a 90 minutes' monologue about a woman in her fifties who wants to re-start his life.

In 2004 "Downfall" was released, his third movie, and till now his greatest success. "Downfall" is about the last 12 days of life of Adolf Hitler narrated out of the sight of her young secretary, Traudl Junge. That movie has stirred up much controversy because it portrays Hitler and the Nazis as human beings and not just as evil.

Hirschbiegel has demonstrated in all his movies to be an specialist of dramas set in claustrophobic environments.

Susanne Lothar was born on 15 November 1960 in Hamburg, Germany. She was an actress, known for Funny Games (1997), The Reader (2008) and The White Ribbon (2009). She was married to Ulrich Mühe. She died on 21 July 2012 in Berlin, Germany.

David Schütter was born in 1991 in Hamburg, Germany. He is an actor, known for Charlie's Angels (2019), Never Look Away (2018) and Our Miracle Years (2020).

Jürgen Vogel was born on 29 April 1968 in Hamburg, West Germany. He is an actor and producer, known for The Wave (2008), Der freie Wille (2006) and Life is All You Get (1997).

Gorgeous was too tame a word for this foreigner stunner. Glamorous brunette beauty Ursula Thiess was born Ursula Schmidt in Hamburg, Germany on May 15, 1924, the daughter of Hans Schmidt, who managed a printing company, and Wilhelmine Lange, her turbulent childhood including working as compulsory farm laborer on the orders of the Nazi government when the teen refused to join the paramilitary Hitler Youth Movement. She later began her entertainment career in her native homeland appearing on the stage and dubbing female voices in American films.

Married to director Georg Thieß, the couple's marriage was a relatively unhappy one and they eventually divorced. With two children (Manuela and Michael) in tow, she found work in the late 1940s/early 1950s as a fashion model in Berlin. She left postwar Germany at the urging of Howard Hughes and signed up with his RKO company for film representation.

Billed as "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" during her initial build-up, her debut movie was as a mixed-race English/Indian girl in the outdoor drama Monsoon (1952) opposite the handsome, frequently bare-chested George Nader. While she failed to weave the same kind of foreign magic as that of Marlene Dietrich, she was far more beautiful and was voted "Most Promising Star of 1952" by Modern Screen Magazine and a Golden Globe the next year. This exotic temptation remained a fetching distraction amid the rugged scenery where, percentage-wise, the story and action remained strongly focused on her handsome he-man co-stars: Robert Stack in The Iron Glove (1954); Rock Hudson in Bengal Brigade (1954); and Glenn Ford in The Americano (1955); Robert Mitchum in Bandido! (1956), among others. Her Hollywood career wound up very short but sweet.

During her brief peak, Ursula met and eventually married the exceedingly handsome film star Robert Taylor (in 1954) and she subsequently abandoned her film career. Outside of her two children by her first marriage, Ursula had two more children (Terrance in 1955 and Tessa in 1959), by Taylor. Though she seemed quite content to be out of the limelight, she did appear with some regularity on her husband's TV series The Detectives (1959) during its first season, playing a police reporter who has a brief affair with Taylor's character. While raising her children was her prime job, she also became an active volunteer at a children's hospital.

Following her son Michael's tragic suicide from a drug overdose and husband Taylor's death shortly thereafter from lung cancer, both in 1969, Ursula was glimpsed here and there in a light sprinkling of film and TV appearances before bowing out completely. .

Surviving an operation for a benign brain tumor in 1979, the former actress married wealthily for a third time and lived in Hawaii during part of that marriage, but would find herself widowed again in 1987 after 12 years. Known to be an excellent home decorator and gourmet cook, she eventually wrote an autobiography entitled "But I Have Promises to Keep" in 2003. Living in the Los Angeles area for the remainder of her life, she eventually entered an assisted facility in Burbank and died on June 19, 2010, at the age of 86, survived by her three remaining children.

Wonderfully talented German-born actor, capable of tremendous comedic and dramatic performances, usually as some type of pompous bureaucrat or similarly arrogant individual. Ruman was born on October 11, 1884, in Hamburg, Germany, and actually studied electrotechnology in college before making the switch to acting. He served with the Imperial German Forces in World War I before coming to the United States in 1924. He became friendly with playwright George S. Kaufman and critic Alexander Woollcott and was regularly appearing in high-quality stage productions on Broadway.

With the advent of talkies, he was kept very busy in the cinema and became a favorite of the Marx Brothers, appearing as stiff-shirted NYC opera owner Herman Gottlieb in the comedy classic A Night at the Opera (1935). He played a know-it-all surgeon crossing swords with Groucho Marx over what exactly was wrong with hypochondriac Margaret Dumont in A Day at the Races (1937). and a dual role in A Night in Casablanca (1946). With his German accent, he was also a regular in several WWII espionage thrillers, including Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), They Came to Blow Up America (1943), and The Hitler Gang (1944), and gave a superb portrayal of the two-faced POW guard Schulz in the splendid Stalag 17 (1953). He was also popular with famed director Ernst Lubitsch, who cast Ruman in Ninotchka (1939), and To Be or Not to Be (1942). In all, he notched up over 100 feature film appearances as well as guest star spots on many TV shows.

Ruman suffered ill health for the final two decades of his life and passed away on February 14, 1967, from a heart attack.

German-American Film, TV and Voice Actor, comedian, writer and the voice of Mercy from Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch. Known for Red Dwarf XI, Homeland, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, David Chase's Not Fade Away. Lucie has written three solo comedy shows which have toured in the US and internationally and was nominated for the NY Innovative Theater Award.

Harry Meyen was born on 31 August 1924 in Hamburg, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for Endspurt (1970), Bunbury (1964) and Die Galerie der großen Detektive (1954). He was married to Romy Schneider and Anneliese Römer. He died on 15 April 1979 in Hamburg, West Germany.

Sophie Charlotte was born on 29 April 1989 in Hamburg, Germany. She is an actress, known for The Killer (2023), Dark Days (2017) and Malhação (1995). She was previously married to Daniel de Oliveira.

Maximilian Mundt was born in April 1996 in Hamburg, Germany. He is an actor and director, known for Gran Turismo (2023), How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) (2019) and Susi (2020).

Lana Cooper was born in 1981 in Hamburg, Germany. She is an actress, known for Beat Beat Heart (2016), Love Steaks (2013) and Bedways (2010).