The 62-year old character actress had just finished a fine supporting character actor role as the depressive wife of devilish Police Commissioner Bruno Wolter in the 16-part series Babylon Berlin (Netflix).
American audiences might recognize her from a brief cameo role as the beleaguered next-door neighbor in Lives of Others. However, she had an extensive resume' including television series - here.
I gather from obits that she came to fame for her role in a 1991 situation comedy GO TRABI GO, in which a family of newly-released East Germans bravely take their rickety Trabant on a trip across the fallen Iron Curtain to Italy.
It's sounds like the communist bloc version of Chevy Chase's earlier European Vacation (1985) which itself had echoes of Jackie Gleason's 1969 Don't Drink the Water. GTG pays homage to Goethe's "Italian Journey" (published 1816; from a trip 1786; here.) They carry around an old copy of Italian Journey the whole trip.
I've seen both Babylon Berlin and Lives of Others several times. Much excitement when today's mail brought a used DVD copy of GO TRABI GO (German; no subtitles; via Amazon) to watch on a future airplane trip.
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| Go Trabi Go |
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| Lives of Others |
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| Babylon Berlin |
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A few other actor notes.
Actor Peter Kurth, who played Commissioner Wolter in Babylon Berlin (2017; photo above with Marie Gruber) played a small role in Goodbye Lenin also (2004), as the manager at a satellite TV company XTV ["Chef"]. Goodbye Lenin was a hit, with budget $6M and gross $80M. For an academic article on Ostalgie, here.
Coffee in Berlin had iconic character actor, elderly Michael Gwisdek, who appears as a washed-up grumpy old drunk in Coffee in Berlin (2014) [as Friedrich], reprising his role in Goodbye Lenin (2004) [as Klapprath].
