# Ernst Schröder (actor)

Ernst Schröder (27 January 1915 – 26 July 1994) was a popular German theatre, film and TV actor.

## Life

Born in Herne, Schröder began his acting career at the nearby Bochum Theatre in 1934, under the director Saladin Schmitt. He worked there until 1936, also working as assistant director and Stage Designer. After working at Bielefeld and Wuppertal, he moved to the Schiller Theatre in Berlin in 1938, which became his artistic home and the location of his greatest triumphs, particularly after the Second World War.
During the war he served briefly in the army, was wounded, and returned to the Schiller Theatre in 1942. When in 1944 the theatre was closed, he returned to serve in the army, and ended the war in Italy as a prisoner. He returned to the theatre in 1946 and rapidly re-established his reputation.
He was a member of the jury at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival in 1957.
He was considered one of the greatest character actors of the German theatre, enjoying larger than life roles. He was frequently compared with the pre-war star Heinrich George. In addition, he frequently acted in Zurich and Munich. Although he concentrated on stage work, both as actor and director, he occasionally appeared in film roles, most notably as German General Hans von Salmuth in the 1962 film The Longest Day.
He achieved broader popularity in the 1970s, appearing more frequently on television, particularly in crime shows like Derrick and Der Alte.
In 1980, his daughter, the actress Christiane Schröder (18 January 1942 – 17 September 1980), committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
In 1981, he staged a production of Shakespeare's King Lear at the Bad Hersfeld Festival. At the end of the 1980s he returned to television in the role of 'Lauritz Lorentz' in the series of Lorentz & Söhne [it] (Lorentz and Sons).
In 1991–92, he appeared as the narrator in a dramatised radio version of The Lord of the Rings.
Throughout his career, Schröder also dubbed the voices of popular English-speaking actors into German. Amongst others, he provided the voices for Charles Boyer, James Cagney, William Conrad, Rex Harrison, Herbert Lom, Spencer Tracy and Peter Ustinov.
At the age of 79, Schröder was diagnosed with cancer at a Berlin hospital. He committed suicide on 26 July 1994 by jumping out of a window.

## Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Author | Director | Notes |
| 1937/38 | Clavigo | Clavigo | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | | |
| 1938/39 | Konig Heinrich IV | Prinz Heinrich | William Shakespeare | Ernst Legal | |
| 1946 | Die Räuber | Karl Moor | Friedrich Schiller | Walter Felsenstein | |
| 1946 | Fraulein Julie | | August Strindberg | Ernst Schröder | |
| 1946 | Boubouroche | | Georges Courteline | Ernst Schröder | |
| 1948 | Caligula | Title role | Albert Camus | | |
| 1950 | Don Carlos | Domingo | Friedrich Schiller | Fritz Kortner | |
| 1952 | Urfaust | Mephisto | Goethe | Willi Schmidt | |
| 1953 | Die Räuber | Karl Moor | Friedrich Schiller | Hans Lietzau | |
| 1953 | Tartuffe | Title role | Molière | O.F. Schuh | |
| 1954 | Der zerbrochene Krug | Dorfrichter Adam | Heinrich von Kleist | O.F. Schuh | |
| 1954 | Warten auf Godot | Wladimir | Samuel Beckett | Fritz Kortner | with Heinz Rühmann |
| 1958 | Richard III | Title role | Shakespeare | Leopold Lindtberg | |
| 1958 | Biedermann und die Brandstifter | Schmitzi | Max Frisch | Oskar Wälterlin | |
| 1961 | Die Echten Sedemunds | Der alte Sedemund | Ernst Barlach | Hans Lietzau | |
| 1961 | Andorra | Lehrer | Max Frisch | Kurt Hirschfeld | World premiere |
| 1962 | Graf Öderland | Prosecutor | Max Frisch | Hans Lietzau | |
| 1963 | Herkules und der Stall des Augias | | Friedrich Dürrenmatt | | World premiere |
| 1964 | Christian Maske, 1913 | | Carl Sternheim | | |
| 1964 | Marat/Sade | Marquis de Sade | Peter Weiss | Konrad Swinarski | World premiere |
| 1965 | Die Wanze | Prisipkin | Wladimir Majakowski | Konrad Swinarski | |
| 1966 | Faust II | Mephisto | Goethe | Ernst Schröder | |
| 1967 | Endspiel | Hamm | Samuel Beckett | Samuel Beckett | |
| 1967 | Die Wiedertaufer | Bockelson | Friedrich Dürrenmatt | Werner Düggelin | World premiere |
| 1968 | Die Trauung | Vater | Witold Gombrowicz | Ernst Schröder | |
| 1973 | Lear | Title role | Edward Bond | Hans Lietzau | |
| 1983 | Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh | Moritz Meister | Thomas Bernhard | Kurt Hübner [de] | Volksbühne production |

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Director | Also Starring | Notes |
| 1940 | Friedrich Schiller – The Triumph of a Genius | Student Zumsteg | Herbert Maisch | Horst Caspar and Heinrich George | |
| 1940 | Fahrt ins Leben | Seekadett Christian Wagner | Bernd Hofmann | Hedwig Bleibtreu | |
| 1941 | Ohm Krüger | Adrian Krüger | Hans Steinhoff | Emil Jannings | |
| 1942 | Der große Schatten | Dr. Martin Scholz | Paul Verhoeven | Heinrich George and Heidemarie Hatheyer | |
| 1944 | The Degenhardts | Jochem Degenhardt | Werner Klingler | Heinrich George | |
| 1949 | The Last Illusion | Walter | Josef von Báky | Fritz Kortner | |
| 1951 | The Sinful Border | Hugo Mielke | Robert A. Stemmle | Dieter Borsche, Inge Egger and Peter Mosbacher | |
| 1952 | Poison in the Zoo | Oskar Beck | Hans Müller | Irene von Meyendorff | |
| 1952 | Under the Thousand Lanterns | Braun | Erich Engel | Michel Auclair | |
| 1952 | The Great Temptation | Prosecutor | Rolf Hansen | Dieter Borsche, Ruth Leuwerik and Renate Mannhardt | |
| 1953 | Diary of a Married Woman | Dr. Hugendübel | Josef von Báky | Maria Schell and O. W. Fischer | |
| 1953 | The Man Between | Olaf Kastner | Carol Reed | James Mason, Claire Bloom and Hildegard Knef | |
| 1954 | The Perfect Couple | Dr. Martini | Robert A. Stemmle | Ingeborg Körner and Hans Reiser | |
| 1954 | Captain Wronski | Stepan | Ulrich Erfurth | Willy Birgel, Elisabeth Flickenschildt | |
| 1954 | The Great Test | Dr. Rottach | Rudolf Jugert | Luise Ullrich and Hans Söhnker | |
| 1955 | Love Without Illusions | Jellinek | Erich Engel | Sonja Ziemann and Curd Jürgens | |
| 1955 | The Plot to Assassinate Hitler | SS-Obergruppenführer | Falk Harnack | Wolfgang Preiss | |
| 1955 | The Captain and His Hero | Hauptmann Eisenhecker | Max Nosseck | Jo Herbst | |
| 1955 | Du mein stilles Tal | Dr. Zöller | Leonard Steckel | Curd Jürgens and Winnie Markus | |
| 1956 | Night of Decision | Jacques Ardent | Falk Harnack | Carl Raddatz, Hilde Krahl and Albert Lieven | |
| 1956 | Without You All Is Darkness | Arthur Wehrmann | Curd Jürgens | Eva Bartok and Curd Jürgens | |
| 1956 | Kitty and the Great Big World | Mr. Crawford - Sekretär | Alfred Weidenmann | Romy Schneider, Karlheinz Böhm and O.E. Hasse | |
| 1956 | The Story of Anastasia | | Falk Harnack | Lilli Palmer and Ivan Desny | |
| 1957 | Stresemann | Dr. Gustav Stresemann | Alfred Braun | Anouk Aimée and Wolfgang Preiss | |
| 1958 | Man müßte nochmal zwanzig sein [de] | | Hans Quest | Karlheinz Böhm | |
| 1958 | Resurrection | Der Gouverneur | Rolf Hansen | Horst Buchholz | |
| 1958 | Iron Gustav | Friedrich Karl Möbius | George Hurdalek | Heinz Rühmann and Lucie Mannheim | |
| 1958 | Solange das Herz schlägt [de] | Franke | Alfred Weidenmann | O.E. Hasse | |
| 1959 | The Man Who Sold Himself | Münchmann | Josef von Báky | Hildegard Knef and Hansjörg Felmy | |
| 1959 | The Black Chapel | Julian Hoffmann | Ralph Habib | Peter van Eyck | |
| 1959 | Marili | Waldemar Heller | Josef von Báky | Sabine Sinjen and Paul Hubschmid | |
| 1960 | Strafbataillon 999 | Dr. Kukill | Harald Philipp | Sonja Ziemann | |
| 1960 | The High Life | Monsieur Alexander | Julien Duvivier | Giulietta Masina, Gustav Knuth and Gert Fröbe | |
| 1960 | My Schoolfriend | Hauptmann Kühn | Robert Siodmak | Heinz Rühmann | |
| 1962 | The Counterfeit Traitor | Baron Gerhard von Oldenburg | George Seaton | William Holden and Lilli Palmer | |
| 1962 | The Longest Day | Gen. Hans von Salmuth | Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki and Darryl F. Zanuck | John Wayne and Robert Mitchum | Uncredited |
| 1963 | Die Nylonschlinge | G.B. Harrison | Rudolf Zehetgruber | Dietmar Schönherr | |
| 1964 | The Secret of Dr. Mabuse | Chefarzt | Hugo Fregonese | Peter van Eyck and O. E. Hasse | |
| 1964 | The Visit | Mayor | Bernhard Wicki | Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn | |
| 1965 | Marvelous Angelique | Le capitaine du Châtelet | Bernard Borderie | Michèle Mercier, Giuliano Gemma and Jean-Louis Trintignant | |
| 1965 | Heidi | Konsul Alfred Sesemann | Werner Jacobs | Gustav Knuth and Margot Trooger | |
| 1974 | The Odessa File | Werner Deilman | Ronald Neame | Jon Voight, Maximilian Schell and Maria Schell | |

## Television

| Year | Title | Role | Author | Director | Also Starring | Notes |
| 1960 | Abendstunde im Spätherbst | Maximilian Friedrich Korbes | Friedrich Dürrenmatt | Rudolf Noelte | | |
| 1962 | Life of Galileo [de] | Galileo Galilei | Bertolt Brecht | Egon Monk | | |
| 1962 | The Beaver Coat [de] | Von Wehrhahn | Gerhart Hauptmann | John Olden | Inge Meysel | |
| 1976 | Derrick | Werner Solms | Herbert Reinecker | Alfred Weidenmann | Mathieu Carrière | |
| 1976 | Derrick | Dr. Scheibnitz | Herbert Reinecker | Dietrich Haugk | Hans Stetter | |
| 1978 | Die Eingesschlossenen | | Jean-Paul Sartre | Pinkas Braun | Judy Winter and Uwe Friedrichsen | |
| 1983 | Derrick | Professor Rotheim | Herbert Reinecker | Theodor Grädler | Gisela Stein | |
| 1984 | Mrs. Harris - Freund mit Rolls Royce | Sir Wilmot | Paul Gallico | Georg Tressler | Inge Meysel, Edith Volkmann and Eberhard Feik | |
| 1985 | A Crime of Honour a.k.a. A Song for Europe | Herr Direktor | Peter Prince | John Goldschmidt | David Suchet and Maria Schneider | |
| 1988 | Lorentz & Söhne [it] | Lauritz Lorentz | | Claus Peter Witt | Heli Finkenzeller, Hans Korte and Gerd Baltus | |
| 1992 | Derrick - Die Festmenüs des Herrn Borgelt | | Herbert Reinecker | | | |
| 1992 | Rochade [cs] | Melkovic | Ladislav Mňačko | Peter Patzak | Michael York and Iris Berben | (final film role) |