Dorothea Wieck

Swiss actress Dorothea Wieck (1908-1986) became a major star and a lesbian idol with her role as the adored teacher Fräulein von Bernburg in the German classic Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (1931). She made more than fifty films, but she was also a prominent stage actress of the Deutsche Theater, the Schillertheater and other main theatres in Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 6846/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 7447, 1932-1933. Photo: Gerty Simon, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 7503/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Robertson, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 7771/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Klagemann / Terra.


Dutch postcard, no. 558. Sent by mail in 1934. Photo: Paramount.

Silent Films

Dorothea Olavia Wieck was born in Davos, Switzerland, in 1908. She was the daughter of wholesale merchant Hans Leopold Wieck and Friederike Wernicke. After spending most of her childhood in Sweden, Dorothea was schooled in Dresden. At the age of 12, she started to study dance and at 15, she attended acting courses by Maria Moissi, the first wife of Alexander Moissi, in Berlin.

She studied with Max Reinhardt and made her stage debut in Vienna at the Theater in der Josephstadt. Later she appeared in Munich at the Münchner Kammerspiele in plays by Carl Zuckmayer and Ferenc Molnár.

After being spotted by director Franz Seitz, she began her film career with a part in the comedy Heimliche Sünder/Secret Sinners (Franz Seitz, 1926), followed by a bigger role in Die kleine Inge und ihre drei Väter/Little Inge and Her Three Fathers (Franz Osten, 1926).

Soon followed more leading roles in silent films like Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart at Heidelberg (Arthur Bergen, 1926), Sturmflut/Storm Tide (Willy Reiber, 1927), and Der Fremdenlegionär/Foreign Legionaire (James Bauer, 1928) with Therese Giehse.

Her breakthrough followed after the introduction of sound film. She had an international success with the pioneering feminist film Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich, 1931). Hertha Thiele co-starred as a sensitive girl, who is sent to an all-girls boarding school where she develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers, Fräulein von Bernburg (Wieck).

First when the lesbian themed film was released in the United States it was banned. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw the importance of the film though and the ban was lifted. Later in Germany the Nazi regime even tried to burn all the copies of the film, but they couldn't.

Bruce Eder at AllMovie: "it was attacked in its time, though not for the lesbian-oriented, homo-erotic aspects of its story and visuals, but for being a critique of the educational establishment. It thus became an underground classic, taken to heart by iconoclasts of all stripes and, most especially, by lesbian audiences. Even by the standards of the twenty-first century, the honesty of the movie is startling when one considers its origins. The technical side of the filmmaking may be a little frayed, but the acting and direction have endured in their appeal across many decades, and the movie continues to attract attention as something more than an artifact."


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 995. Photo: Emelka.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 61/3, 1926. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Publicity still for Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (Arthur Bergen, 1926) with Werner Fuetterer.


Dutch Postcard by M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam, Z., no. 104 e. Photo: Fim Film, Amsterdam. Publicity still for Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich, 1931).


British card in the series Film Shots by Film Weekly. Photo: Deutsche. Publicity still for Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich, 1931) with Hertha Thiele.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 164/2. Photo: Phoebus Tonfilm prod. Publicity still for Trenck (Ernst Neubach, Heinz Paul, 1932) with Theodoor Loos. Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7265/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Phoebus Tonfilm Prod. Publicity still for Trenck - Der Roman einer großen Liebe/Trenck - The novel of a great love (Ernst Neubach, Heinz Paul, 1932).

Hollywood

In the years after Mädchen in Uniform, Dorothea Wieck starred in well-known productions like the operetta Gräfin Mariza/Countess Mariza (Richard Oswald, 1932), and Anna und Elisabeth (Frank Wisbar, 1933) again with Hertha Thiele.

In 1932, Wieck married baron Ernst von der Decken, a journalist and author. They were not often together and divorced in 1935.

The international success of Mädchen in Uniform led her to Hollywood where she starred in two films, Cradle Song (Mitchell Leisen, 1933) and Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen (Alexander Hall, 1934), based on the Lindbergh kidnapping case. Both films flopped at the box office and this, combined with accusations of espionage for the Nazis, forced her return to Germany.

In the following years Wieck played in such popular films as Der Student von Prag/The Student of Prague (Arthur Robison, 1935) starring Adolf Wohlbrück (Anton Walbrook), and Die gelbe Flagge/The Yellow Flagg (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1937) with Hans Albers.

During wartime Dorothea Wieck turned her attention to the theatre, and also worked as a stage director. As a celebrated actress, she was repeatedly dinner partner of Chancellor Hitler. She occasionally appeared in front of the camera in the propaganda film Kopf hoch, Johannes!/Head up, Johannes! (Viktor de Kowa, 1941), Andreas Schlüter (Herbert Maisch, 1942) featuring Heinrich George, and Der Grüne Salon/The Green Room (Boleslaw Barlog, 1944). In Italy, she made Inviati speciali/Special Guests (Romolo Marcellini, 1943).


Dutch postcard, printed by Smeets & Schippers, Amsterdam. Photo: Paramount.


Dutch postcard by M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam-Z., no. B 299. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Cradle Song (Mitchell Leisen, 1933).


German postcard by Ross Verlag. Photo: Paramount.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 8448/2, 1933-1934. Photo: Paramount.


German postcard by Margarinewerk Eidelstedt Gebr. Fauser GmbH, Holstein. Serie 1, Bild 35. Photo: Marcus.

Supporting Roles

After the war, Dorothea Wieck was reported to be death. After the bombing of Dresden in February 1945, the actress had been buried for 4 days, but she survived though seriously injured. The German magazine Der Spiegel reported on 01/11/47: "Dorothea Wieck, the Berlin stage and film actress is not dead, as was reported incorrectly after the bombing of Dresden in 1944 (sic)." The following tear, she would return to the theatre and make a stage tour.

In the 1950s followed interesting supporting roles in films like Herz der Welt/The Alfred Nobel Story (Harald Braun, 1952) with Dieter Borsche, Man on a Tightrope (Elia Kazan, 1953) starring Frederic March, Das Fräulein von Scuderi/The Miss from Scuderi (Eugen York, 1955) featuring the legendary Henny Porten, the Heimatfilm Das Forsthaus in Tirol/The forester`s house in Tirol(Hermann Kugelstadt, 1955), A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Douglas Sirk, 1958), and Menschen im Hotel/Grand Hotel (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1959) with Michèle Morgan.

After that she retired from the film business more or less. To her last films belong Die Schachnovelle/Brainwashed (Gerd Oswald, 1960) with Curd Jürgens and Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt/The girl and the prosecutor (Jürgen Goslar, 1962).

Between 1961 and 1967, Wieck taught acting at her own academy in Berlin. On TV she played in two episodes of the Krimi series Der Kommissar in 1969 and 1973. In 1973 she was awarded for her work with the Filmband in Gold.

Dorothea Wieck passed away in 1986 in Berlin, at the age of 78. She is not forgotten and has still many fans, because of her role in Mädchen in Uniform. At IMDb, reviewer Jan Onderwater notes: "The direction of Sagan/Froelich and the cinematography are outstanding, but it could never have become the classic it is if both Hertha Thiele and Dorothea Wieck had not been in the lead. Photogenic Thiele plays Manuela as a sensitive, but still proud girl; Wieck gives the Von Bernburg character all the subtleties and uncertainties it needs."


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 9342/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Europa / Cine-Allianz. Publicity still for Der Student von Prag/The Student of Prague (Arthur Robison, 1935).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 9182/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Europa / Froelich-Film. Publicity still for Liselotte von der Pfalz (Carl Froelich, 1935).


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 2732, 1939-1940. Photo: Greinert.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, Berlin, no. A 3628/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Terra.


German postcard by 'Das Programm von heute', Zeitschrift für Film und Theater G.m.b.H., Berlin. Photo: Tobis-Weisse.

Sources: Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-line - German), I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Der Spiegel (German)Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren... (1926)

Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren.../I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (1926) was a German silent comedy directed by Arthur Bergen. It was produced by the Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka), one of the few German film studios which was not located in Berlin but in Munich. The young lovers were played by Werner Fuetterer and Dorothea Wieck, both at the start of a promising career.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 61/2, 1926. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Publicity still for Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (Arthur Bergen, 1926).

An immediate popular hit

Ich hab' mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren took its title from a German song composed in 1925 by Fred Raymond with lyrics by Fritz Löhner-Beda and Ernst Neubach. The song was an immediate popular hit, and in 1927 Raymond included it in a musical of the same name.

The refrain goes:
"Ich hab' mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren,
In einer lauen Sommernacht.
Ich war verliebt bis über beide Ohren
Und wie ein Röslein hat ihr Mund gelacht.
Und als wir Abschied nahmen vor den Toren
Beim letzten Kuß, da hab ich's klar erkannt:
Daß ich mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren.
Mein Herz, es schlägt am Neckarstrand."

"I lost my heart in Heidelberg
on a warm summer night.
I was in love head over heels
and like a rosebud her lips laughed
And as we bid farewell at the gates
during the last kiss
I knew clearly right there
that I lost my heart in Heidelberg
My heart beats on the beach of Neckar!"


Dorothea Wieck. Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 995. Photo: Emelka.


Werner Fuetterer. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1507/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Publicity still for Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (Arthur Bergen, 1926).

Sequel and remake

The film Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren (1926) was directed by Arthur Bergen, and written by German playwright Max Ferner. Arthur Bergen was an Austrian actor-director, active in the film industry since 1915. Max Ferner was the screenplay co-writer for what would later become Alfred Hitchcock's film The Mountain Eagle (1927).

The cast of Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren (1926) included apart from Werner Fuetterer and Dorothea Wieck also Emil Höfer, Gertrud de Lalsky, Mary Parker and Harry Halm. The production company was Emelka or Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG, a Munich based film studio which was active from 1919 till 1932. The company was a direct competitor to UFA, which had started in Berlin in 1917, and quickly absorbed several other film industry companies in the region.

In 1930 investor Wilhelm Kraus and a consortium of banks bought a major shareholding in Emelka, and on 21 September 1932 the group took control of the company and renamed it Bavaria Film AG. In 1938 the Bavaria Film was nationalised but privatised again in 1956. Bavaria is still one of Europe's largest film production companies, with some 30 subsidiaries.

Emelka produced a sequel to Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren (1926), Mein Heidelberg, ich kann Dich nicht vergessen/My Heidelberg, I can't forget you (James Bauer, 1927). Many in the cast returned but instead of Fuetterer and Parker now Hans Adalbert Schlettow and Vivian Gibson joined the cast.

After the Second World War, another film took its title from the song: the West German romantic musical Ich hab' mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (Ernst Neubach, 1952).

The film starred Eva Probst and Adrian Hoven as the young lovers and Paul Hörbiger. It premiered in Heidelberg on 29 October 1952. This musical was part of a strong trend towards Heimatfilms set in romanticised Southern Germany, Austria or Switzerland.

The song Ich hab' mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren has become an evergreen and remains the theme song of the city of Heidelberg.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 61/1, 1926. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Publicity still for Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (Arthur Bergen, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 61/3, 1926. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Publicity still for Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (Arthur Bergen, 1926).

Sources: Cuppachino, Wikipedia and IMDb.
Hear the song.

Mädchen in Uniform (1931)

The German film Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich, 1931) is a ground-breaking classic. The film made of its two lead actresses, Hertha Thiele and Dorothea Wieck, international stars - and lesbian idols.


Dutch Postcard by M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam, Z., no. 104 e. Photo: Fim Film, Amsterdam. Publicity still for Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich, 1931).

Spirited and independent

Manuela von Meinhardis (Hertha Thiele), a spirited and independent 14-year old schoolgirl, is sent to a boarding school for daughters of officers in Northern Germany, when her mother dies. The girls at this Catholic boarding school are slight, pale creatures - hungry for food and comfort.

The authoritarian head mistress, Fraülein von Nordeck zur Nidden (Emilia Unda), runs the school with an iron hand. She believes that daughters of Prussian soldiers must be taught discipline and deprivation, not luxury.

Ilse (Ellen Schwannecke) is the school trouble-maker, leader, and clown. Witty and outspoken, she repeatedly entertains the other girls, binding them together in secret comradery against their oppressive elders.

Like the rest of the girls, Manuela yearns for the attention of the fair and beautiful Elizabeth Von Bernburg (Dorothea Wieck), a young teacher who believes it's important to be the children's trusted friend. Manuela is ecstatic when Fraülein von Bernburg presents her with a gift, one of her slips, to replace the girl's own tattered underwear.

Relief from the regimentation of school life comes when the girls stage a theatrical production for students, staff and trustees of the boarding school. Manuela's performance as Don Carlos is accomplished and praised by students and staff.

At a party following the play, Manuela is the only student who can tolerate the taste of the punch given to them as a reward. Her friends pass their cups on to her and she soon gets herself quite drunk. In a semi-conscious state she announces her feelings for Fraulein von Burnberg to the entire school along with the infuriated Headmistress.


Dorothea Wieck. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6846/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.


Hertha Thiele. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6997/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.

At speed and on a low budget

German actress Hertha Thiele began her professional acting career in 1928 as a stage actress in Leipzig.

There she had her breakthrough two years later with the play Ritter Nérestan (Knight Nérestan) by Christa Winsloe.

Thiele and Claire Harden played the lead roles in this tale set in a Prussian boarding school for girls. The play, directed by Leontine Sagan, was an immediate success at its premiere in 1930.

After Leipzig the play was produced on stage in Berlin as Gestern und heute (Yesterday and Today), with a different cast and a more prominent lesbian theme. Again it was a huge success.

This success prompted Carl Froelich to adapt it for film. Reportedly he toned the lesbian theme somewhat down. He invited Leontine Sagan, for whom it was her first film. to join. The direction was split into direction of the cast and mise-en-scene by Sagan and overall direction by Carl Froelich, the Künstleriche Oberleitung.

After many screen tests, author Christa Winsloe insisted that Hertha Thiele played the lead role. Director Sagan preferred Gina Falckenberg who had done the role on stage in Berlin.

Thiele had already played a young lesbian in Ferdinand Bruckner's stage play Die Kreatur (The Creature) and although twenty-three years old when filming began, she was considered to be more capable of portraying a fourteen-year-old. The role of the adored teacher Fräulein von Bernburg was given to Swiss actress Dorothea Wieck.

Having mostly played the same roles on stage, the all-female cast was able to produce the film at speed and on a low budget of RM55,000. It was largely shot at the Potsdam military orphanage, now a teacher training college for women. Carl Froelich's studio in Berlin-Tempelhof was also used.


British card in the series Film Shots by Film Weekly. Photo: Deutsche. Publicity still for Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich, 1931) with Ellen Schwannecke and Dorothea Wieck.


British card in the series Film Shots by Film Weekly. Photo: Deutsche. Publicity still for Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich, 1931) with Dorothea Wieck and Hertha Thiele.

Goodnight kiss

From its premiere at the Capitol cinema in Berlin until 1934 Mädchen in Uniform grossed some RM 6,000,000. It was a success throughout much of Europe. The film won the audience referendum for Best Technical Perfection at the Venice Film Festival in 1932 and received the Japanese Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1934.

The international success made of both Wieck and Thiele major stars. The goodnight kiss Thiele received from Wieck was especially popular: one distributor even asked for more footage of other kisses like it to splice into prints of the film.

Mädchen in Uniform was ground-breaking as one of the earliest narrative films to explicitly portray homosexuality. The two stars received thousands of fan letters, mostly from women, and both became lesbian idols. This made the film also very controversial.

Author Christa Winsloe was a lesbian. She was educated in the Empress Augusta boarding school, where Mädchen in Uniform was set. Reportedly there really was a Manuela, who remained lame all of her life after she threw herself down the stairs. She came to the premiere of the film and for Winsloe this experience was one she had to write from her heart.

Jan Onderwater at IMDb: "The play as well as the later novel emphasizes the sexual/lesbian love theme, but the film adaptation was toned down; the original sad end was replaced by a happy end. Though the film goes as far as it can in its theme of (awakening) lesbian feelings and sexual feelings of young girls in general, shifting emphasis automatically meant concentrating on the theme of the cold and inhumane authoritarian (Prussian) way of life and upbringing, a way of thinking still present in the Weimar republic and in 1931 already considered a danger to the young republic. Then audiences were more interested in this aspect than in the sexual one."

In the US, the film was first banned, but First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw the importance of it and the film got a limited American release in 1932-1933.

In Germany, an alternate ending which subtly pandered to pro-Nazi ideals enabled continued screening in German cinemas, but eventually even this version of the film was banned as 'decadent' by the Nazi regime, which reportedly attempted to burn all of the existing prints.

Leontine Sagan and many others associated with the film fled Germany soon after the banning. Many of the cast and crew were Jewish, including Emilia Unda and Ellen Schwannecke, and those who could not escape from Germany died in the camps. When assistant director Walter Supper realized his Jewish wife would be arrested, he shot her, himself and his dog.

Despite its later banning, Mädchen in Uniform was followed by several German films about intimate relationships among women, such as Acht Mädels im Boot/Eight Girls in a Boat (1932), Ich für dich, du für mich/Me for you, you for me (Carl Froelich, 1934) and Anna und Elisabeth/Anna and Elisabeth (Leontine Sagan, 1933), which also starred Wieck and Thiele but was banned by the Nazis soon after its opening night.

After the war, Mädchen in Uniform is said to have inspired the 1949 novel Olivia by Dorothy Bussy, which treats very similar themes, and which was made into the French film Olivia (Jacqueline Audry, 1951). And there was a German remake, Mädchen in Uniform, (Géza von Radványi, 1958) starring Lilli Palmer, Romy Schneider, and Therese Giehse.

The Nazis had attempted to burn all of the existing prints, but several had been dispersed around the world and survived the war. The screened film versions were heavily censored until the 1970s, and it was not shown again in Germany until 1977 when it was screened on television there. A year later, the film was re-released in the US. It's now an international cult classic, but according to Wikipedia even this and later released versions probably miss some brief scenes.


British card in the series Film Shots by Film Weekly. Photo: Deutsche. Publicity still for Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich, 1931) with Dorothea Wieck and Emilia Unda.


British card in the series Film Shots by Film Weekly. Photo: Deutsche. Publicity still for Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, Carl Froelich, 1931) with Dorothea Wieck and Emilia Unda.


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht (printed by 't Sticht), no. AX 3879, posted by mail in 1959. Photo: Grimm / C.C.C. / Gloria. Publicity still for Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Géza von Radványi, 1958) with Romy Schneider.

Sources: Heide Schlüpmann & Karola Gramman (Screening the past), Jan Onderwater (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.