Defa Foundation confirms media reports: Actress Angelica Domröse died

In the cult film, Domröse played the single mother Paula, who falls in love with the married Paul (Winfried Glatzeder). The film shows everyday life in the GDR and asks what you can expect from life.

“There has to be something else than sleeping, working. And sleeping and working again,” says Paula in one scene. The drama is considered one of former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s favorite films.

“With Angelica Domröse we are losing a great actress who, as ‘Paula’, taught us that love and freedom do not tolerate compromises,” said Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer. “She was not only the face of one of the greatest successes of GDR cinema, but also an unmistakable character on the theater stages of East and West and in numerous television productions. Angelica Domröse will be missed.”

Born as a war child in Berlin

Domröse was born in Berlin in 1941, and as a young woman she appeared in front of the film camera for the first time. After graduating from the Babelsberg Film School, she went to the Berliner Ensemble and later appeared at the Berliner Volksbühne.

Domröse made dozens of films before she left the GDR. These included Theodor Fontane’s “Effi Briest” in the Defa film adaptation and the TV multi-part “Wege übers Land”. Domröse’s second marriage was to her colleague Hilmar Thate (1931–2016).

Like many artists, the two supported songwriter Wolf Biermann, who was expatriated from the GDR in 1976. Domröse also later went to West Berlin with her husband.

A role with particular force

Over the course of her career, she has filmed with Michael Haneke, among others, played an inspector in the TV crime series “Polizeiruf 110” and in 2012 was in the comedy “Bis zum Horizont, then links!” to see.

She has never had such success as with “Paula” again, Domröse told the German Press Agency in an interview in 2021. “And I had a lot, I can’t complain.”

The role of Paula back then was a blast, said Domröse. If other generations still said today that they understood the film and found it interesting, that would be a fulfillment. Domröse added: “You can’t say that about many works in life.”