Dittus, Barbara

In Der Dritte © DEFA-Stiftung, Ingo Raatzke
Biography:
The actress Barbara Dittus was known for her talent at playing confident, sensible women. She was born in Guben (now Poland) on July 11, 1939. As a schoolgirl she could be heard on children’s radio. From 1956 to 1961 Dittus studied acting at the Academy of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg. She was a member of the company at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin (1962-67) and the Berlin Ensemble (1968-93).
Dittus’ first film role was in Slatan Dudow’s Verwirrung der Liebe. Her cinematic breakthrough came with the antifascist film Die Toten bleiben jung, based on the Anna Seghers novel, in which Dittus played the 27-year span of a proletarian woman’s life. Dittus was adept at playing wide variety of characters in film and television, such as historical figures in Clara Zetkin, contemporary emancipated women as in Egon Günther’s Der Dritte and comedic roles like Sabine the barmaid in Günther Reisch’s Anton der Zauberer.
Dittus was a prolific actress not only in film but in television as well, particularly from the mid-1980s to 1999. Her daughter Susanne Lüning (born 1966) is also an actress.
Barbara Dittus died in Berlin on June 25, 2001.
Festivals & Awards:
1980 | Best Supporting Actor, GDR National Feature Film Festival, Karl-Marx-Stadt for P.S. |
Filmography:
1996 | Engelchen (Little Angel) |
1995 | Das Versprechen (The Promise) |
1991 | Miraculi |
1987 | Die Alleinseglerin (The Solo Sailor) |
1986 | Stielke, Heinz, fünfzehn... (Stielke, Heinz, Fifteen) |
1986 | Wie die Alten sungen… (Like Father, Like Son) |
1986 | Das Schulgespenst (The School Ghost) |
1985 | Atkins |
1983 | Ärztinnen (Women Doctors) |
1983 | Automärchen (Motoring Tales) |
1981 | Märkische Forschungen (Exploring the Mark Brandenburg) |
1981 | Bürgshaft für ein Jahr (On Probation) |
1981 | Brot und ABC (Bread and ABC, narrator) |
1980 | Unser kurzes Leben (Our Short Life) |
1979 | Einfach Blumen aufs Dach (Just Put Flowers on the Roof) |
1978 | P.S. |
1978 |
Bis daß der Tod euch scheidet (Until Death Do Us Part) |
1978 | Sieben Sommersprossen (Seven Freckles) |
1977 | Anton der Zauberer (Anton the Magician) |
1976 | Tambari |
1976 | Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther) |
1975 | Clara Zetkin (TV) |
1971 | Der Dritte (Her Third) |
1970 | Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty) |
1968 | Die Toten bleiben jung (The Dead Stay Young) |
1968 | Mohr und die Raben von London (Moor and the Ravens of London) |
1962 | Die schwarze Galeere (The Black Galley) |
1960 | Fünf Tage – Fünf Nächte (Five Days, Five Nights) |
1959 | Verwirrung der Liebe (Love’s Confusion) |