Alexander Engel

Biography

Berlin, 4 June 1902: Alexander Engel drew his first breath and, almost as quickly, began hoarding the city’s restless pulse. By the time he left the Reicherschen Hochschule für dramatische Kunst, the stage had already whispered his name. 1923 found him treading boards in Allenstein, a rookie with a voice like gathering thunder. Königsberg and Rostock soon claimed him, but Berlin sealed the bargain in 1931, handing him spotlights and shadows in equal measure. A year later the camera beckoned; he stepped before it and never stepped away. For the next thirty-six years audiences watched him distil unease into celluloid—every narrowed gaze, every velvet menace—until the final curtain fell in Saarbrücken on 25 July 1968.