Wera Paintner

• Name — Wera Blanke • Birth Name — Wera Paintner • Born — 2 March 1933 • Birthplace — Leipzig, Saxony, Germany • Occupation — Actress, Esperantist • Spouse — Wolfgang Dehler (married 1960-1969); Detlev Blanke (married 1986)

Blanke was born in Leipzig on 2 March 1933, to actors Martin Flörchinger and Ruth Trumpp. She made her theatre-debut at the age of six, as a child actor at a theatre in Bochum. She often moved cities through her childhood according to where her parents were acting: she would often appear on stage with her parents, for example in theatres in Königsberg and Munich.

After graduating in 1951 in Schondorf, Bavaria, Blanke worked as a technician at Bavaria Film and Aktiengesellschaft für Filmfabrikation, before applying to study theatre at the Staatlichen Schauspielschule Berlin (known today as the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts) in Berlin. In 1956, she moved from Munich to Leipzig in East Germany, where her father was acting. During her studies, she worked as an actress at the Volksbühne theatre in Berlin, and from 1958 the Theater der Jungen Welt in Leipzig, the Landestheater Altenburg, and the Nationaltheater Weimar. Blanke also worked as an actress in productions by Deutscher Fernsehfunk, such as Maria Diehl's Daring (Das Wagnis der Maria Diehl), several episodes of the detective series Polizeiruf 110, and Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort. Around 1967, after acting in Bitterfelder Weges, Blanke went to the East German agricultural cooperative Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft, where she worked as a chicken keeper; she kept a journal during this time, which appeared as a manuscript under the title Of Chickens and Humans (Von Hühnern und Menschen). From 1967 to 1971, Paintner worked as a lecturer at the Staatlichen Schauspielschule Berlin (where she had previously studied), from 1972 to 1982 and worked as an occupational and expressive therapist at the Wilhelm-Griesinger-Krankenhaus. Blanke continued acting roles during her time as a teacher; she played roles in televised films, radio dramas, and dubbed foreign media into German. Blanke also presented a program about literature, in which she presented some of her own fables and poems Blanke married fellow actor Wolfgang Dehler in 1960, having three children with him during a nine-year marriage; their son Thomas Dehler (actor), is also an actor. In 1986, she married the interlinguist and Esperantist Detlev Blanke (died 2016), who was a lecturer at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Blanke began working with the International auxiliary language Esperanto in 1976, becoming convinced of its potential after visiting the 1978 World Esperanto Congress in Varna, Bulgaria. Starting work on issues of terminology in Esperanto in the early 1980s, in 1985, Blanke (then under the name of Wera Dehler) proposed an Esperanto terminological centre, together with Humphrey Tonkin, in a report entitled Terminologia Esperanto-Centro: Spertoj, Problemoj, Perspektivoj (Esperanto Terminological Centre: Experiences, Problems, Perspectives), leading to the Terminologia Esperanto-Centro being established and funded by the Universal Esperanto Association in 1987. Together with her second husband, Detlev Blanke, Blanke has published several books and articles in and about Esperanto, and given lectured about Esperantists in the field of terminology, such as Eugen Wüster, Ernest Drezen, and Alfred Werner. In 2006, Blanke was awarded the Eugen-Wüster-Sonderpreis by Infoterm, and was made an honorary member of the German Esperanto Association in 2018.

*

Filmography of Wera Blanke (often appearing as Wera Paintner) • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1957 — Das Wagnis der Maria Diehl • 1962 — Aufruhr in der Scymore-Street • 1964 — Das Doppelzimmer • 1967 — Das Mädchen an der Orga Privat • 1968 — Der Kristallspiegel • 1968 — Das Vertrauen • 1969 — Hans Beimler, Kamerad • 1970-1990 — Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort — Six episodes • 1970 — Ich – Axel Cäsar Springer • 1971 — Salut Germain • 1972 — Täter unbekannt • 1972 — Meine Schwester Tilli • 1972 — Weimarer Pitaval: Um den Tod eines Justizobersekretärs • 1972 — Die Bilder des Zeugen Schattman • 1973 — Aller Liebe Anfang • 1973 — Zement • 1974 — Spätsaison • 1976 — Requiem für Hans Grundig • 1984 — Mit 40 hat man noch Träume • 1984-1988 — Polizeiruf 110 — Five episodes • 1986 — Rund um die Uhr — Two episodes • 1987 — Kiezgeschichten • 1988 — Der Vogel • 1988 — Zahn um Zahn • 1988 — Ein besserer Herr • 1988 — Fallada – Letztes Kapitel • 1990 — Silberdistel • 1990 — Alter Schwede • 1991 — Feuerwache 09 • 1991 — Mit Herz und Robe • 1991 — Agentur Herz • 1993 — Fraktur