Dorothea Wieck

Biography

After spending most of her childhood in Sweden, Dorothea was schooled in Dresden and at the age of 12, was taught dance by Maria Moissi in Berlin. She made her stage debut in Vienna , where she appeared in plays by Carl Zuckmayer and Ferenc Molnár. The Swiss-born made her debut in the silent cinema in 1926 after being spotted by the director Franz Seitz. Her greatest impact was to be in Leontine Sagan's pioneering feminist film Mädchen in Uniform (1931) in the leading role of the teacher Fraeulein von Bernburg. On the strength of this performance, she was signed by Paramount to star in Cradle Song (1933). While her performance was poignant, the film flopped at the box office and her second Hollywood effort (Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen (1934), based on the Lindbergh kidnapping case) did even worse. This, combined with accusations of espionage, forced her return to Germany. Back home, she made no secret of her dislike of the Nazi regime and her career suffered as a result. Only a few roles in relatively minor films followed. After the war, she devoted most of her time to the theatre (with sporadic appearances on screen) and between 1961 and 1967 taught acting at her own academy in Berlin.