Erwin Geschonneck - "Widerstand und Anpassung - Überlebensstrategie" (Originaltonfeature by Thomas Heise)

Erwin Geschonneck, a German actor who spent years in Nazi concentration camps for his communist sympathies and went on to star in scores of East German films, died on March, 13, 2008 in Berlin at the age of 101.

Geschonneck's "engaging artistic and political efforts were recognized with the highest international acclaim for decades," the german Academy of Arts said in a statement. It said that the biography of Geschonnek, who died at his Berlin apartment, "is a window into a century of German history."

Geschonneck, the son of a cobbler, was born in East Prussia on Dec. 27, 1906 and grew up in Berlin. He joined the Communist party in 1919, and spent years with theater groups that performed agitprop, with workers' choirs and in a young people's theater. He made his big-screen debut in 1931 as an extra in Slatan Dudows' "Kuhle Wampe" - a film about unemployment in the Weimar Republic written by famed playwright and director Bertolt Brecht.

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Geschonneck went into exile in the Soviet Union, settling in Odessa - where he worked in a German-language collective theater until he was expelled in 1938. He ended up in Prague, where he was arrested by the SS in 1939 after the Nazis took over, then thrown into the Sachsenhausen concentration camp outside Berlin.
During the war, he was also imprisoned in the Dachau and Neuengamme camps. Just days before the end of the war, he was being transported aboard the Cap Arcona - a prewar luxury liner that had been commandeered by the German navy - along with some 4,000 other concentration camp inmates when it was sunk by the Royal Air Force in the Baltic.
Many of those who were not killed in the attack were gunned down by the SS as they tried to swim ashore.
Geschonneck was one of 350 who survived, and his story would be later made into the 1982 East German television film "Der Mann von der Cap Arcona" - "The Man of the Cap Arcona" - in which he also acted.

After the war, Geschonneck resumed acting in 1946 in Hamburg in the theater, and also took on several supporting film roles.
In 1949, he moved to East Berlin and joined Brecht's Berliner Ensemble theater troupe, where he gained national attention starring as "Matti" in an acclaimed production of "Mr. Puntila and his Man Matti."

He acted in his first film for DEFA - East Germany's state-run film agency - in 1950 and later that decade decided to concentrate all of his efforts on the screen, despite Brecht's objections.
He rose to become one of East Germany's best-known actors with scores of films to his credit, and won several awards for his work. He also became vice president of the country's film and television federation. Despite being a strong supporter of the communist movement, he appeared in several movies criticizing the East German government, which were not banned due to his reputation.

After the reunification of Germany, he was awarded with the national "Filmband in Gold" prize in 1993.
He acted in his last film, "Matulla und Busch," in 1995 under the direction of his son, Matti Geschonneck. Rest in peace!

In memory of this great artist here´s a radio feature by Thomas Heise, banned in East Germany in 1987 and broadcasted in 1989. It is called "Widerstand und Anpassung - Überlebensstategie" and features Erwin Geschonneck remembering his time in the concentration camp Dachau. The feature is in german language.

Widerstand und Anpassung - Überlebensstrategie (Originaltonfeature)