Rosel Zech
Rosalie Helga Lina Zech (7 July 1940 – 31 August 2011), known as Rosel Zech, was a German theater and film actress, she is most well known for her works associated with the "Autorenkino" (New German Cinema) movement, which began in the 1970s.
Also recorded as Rosalie Helga Lina Zech
Rosel Zech
Harvey Kneeslapper · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1940. · Berlin.
- Died
- 2011. · Berlin.
- Nationality
- Germany.
- Occupation
- actress and musician.
- Fields
- theatre and film.
- Honours
- Bavarian Order of Merit and Kainz Medal.
- Languages
- German.
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Documentary summary
Rosalie Helga Lina Zech (7 July 1940 – 31 August 2011), known as Rosel Zech, was a German theater and film actress, she is most well known for her works associated with the "Autorenkino" (New German Cinema) movement, which began in the 1970s.
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Note VALÉORINE
Rosel Zech (1940–2011) was an actor, actress and film actor, among other activities, of German nationality. The actor was born and died in Berlin. Activity centred on film and theatre.
Languages used include German. Honours include Bavarian Order of Merit and Kainz Medal.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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wikidata · Q73047 · wikipedia · Rosel Zech
In this article
Theater
Theater
Rosel Zech was born in Berlin; her father was a citizen of Poland. Because of her birth out of wedlock, her mother, a dressmaker, married an inland waterway boatman soon after her daughter's birth, giving her his last name, She was raised in Hoya, Germany. Her performances led her, at the age of 20, to Lower Bavaria, where in 1962, her first theatrical engagement was in the South Bavarian City Theater (now the Lower Bavarian State Theatre) in Landshut. This was followed by other roles at various other theaters, such as in 1964 at the Städtebundtheater in Biel and at the summer theater in Winterthur. Two years later, she played at the Schauspielhaus Wuppertal. From 1970 to 1972, she appeared on stage at the Staatstheater Stuttgart and then at the Schauspielhaus Bochum. During the 1978-79 season, Rosel Zech was active in Hamburg at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus and then returned to her native city of Berlin, where she acted on the Volksbühne. In 1981 she was hired by the Bayerischen Staatsschauspiel in Munich. Four years later, she was seen again at the Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. In 2009 she worked with in the Luisenburg Festival in the play Mother Courage as Anna Fierlinger.
Death
Death
She died of bone cancer in Berlin on 31 August 2011, aged 71.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
2011
Rosel Zech died in 2011 at Berlin.
Film and television
She made her 1970 television debut in The Pot. In 1973 she appeared in a small role in The Tenderness of Wolves with Kurt Raab and Margit Carstensen. On the set, she met Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who produced the film. She and Fassbinder began an extended collaboration. The same year, Peter Zadek cast the actress in his film version of Kleiner Mann – was nun? ("Little man - what now?" with Heinrich Giskes and Hannelore Hoger. Other films and TV movies followed, including a film version of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, and Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. In the children's film Die Vorstadtkrokodile from 1977, she played Mrs. Wolferman, the mother of one of the "crocodiles". She appeared in Peter Fleischmann's 1979 science fiction film The Hamburg Syndrome. In 1981, she was cast by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the film Lola (1981) in a supporting role as the wife of Mario Adorf. Fassbinder immediately chose her for his next project, Veronika Voss, and cast her as the lead. This second Fassbinder film was inspired by the life of the UFA actress Sybille Schmitz. Rosel Zech's convincing portrayal of the morphine-addicted actress turned Zech into a star overnight. The film was awarded in the 1982 Berlin International Film Festival with a Golden Bear. In the following years, Zech focused mainly on work in television and appeared in numerous television series and television films, as well as in regular theater productions in Berlin, where she lived during her last years. From 2002 until her death, she had a regular role as the mother superior in the German TV series Um Himmels Willen.
Awards
1968: Förderpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen 1976: Schauspielerin des Jahres der Zeitschrift Theater heute for Hedda Gabler 1982: Goldener Bär der Berlinale for Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss 1983: Deutscher Darstellerpreis for Mascha 1990: Kainz-Medaille der Stadt Wien for Eines langen Tages Reise in die Nacht 1991: 1. Preis des World Film Festival in Montreal for Salmonberries 1992: Bayerischer Filmpreis (Beste Darstellerin) for Salmonberries 1999: Bayerischer Verdienstorden 2001: Merkur-Theaterpreis der Zeitung Münchner Merkur for Afterplay
Urnengrabstelle der Schauspielerin Rosel Zech
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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