Biography:

Actor, director, and theater manager Albert Hetterle was born in Odessa (today Ukraine) on October 31, 1918. He studied acting at the Kollektivisten Theater. Because of the war he was evacuated in 1941 and settled in Germany.

After WWII Hetterle performed in theaters in Sonderhausen, Altenburg, Greifswald, Erfurt, and Halle. At the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin he worked as an actor and director 1955-1998, and as the manager from 1968-1994.

Under Hetterle’s management the Maxim Gorki Theater became one of the most exciting in Berlin. Russian and Soviet realism, German classics, and critical modern Soviet plays were part of his program. When East German officials looked upon Glasnost and Perestroika with suspicion, Hetterle staged critical plays by modern Soviet authors. After the Wall came down and the competition between the theaters in Berlin grew, he opened his doors to young writers and directors.

Starting in the mid-1950s, Albert Hetterle performed in many East German television productions and narrative films, including the leading role in Joachim Kunert’s Das zweite Gleis, the only East German feature film which explores the theme of former Nazis leading normal lives in the GDR.

Albert Hetterle, who was often described as an icon of the Berlin theater scene, died on December 17, 2006.