page_title: Inge Keller
section_title: Height of career
hierarchical_section_title: Inge Keller / Career / Height of career
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Zentralbild-Hochneder 2.10.1963 VII. Berliner Festtage 1963 - Iphigenie auf Tauris. Am 4. Oktober 1963 findet im Deutschen Theater die Premiere von "Iphigenie auf Tauris" von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe unter der Regie von Wolfgang Langhoff statt. UBz. Szenenbild mit Wolfgang Langhoff als Thoas (links), Inge Keller als Iphigenie und Horst Drinda als Orest.
context_page_description: Inge Keller was a German stage and film actress whose career on stage and screen spanned seventy years. She was one of the most prominent performers in the former German Democratic Republic. Thomas Langhoff described her as "perhaps the most famous actress of the German Democratic Republic—a star." Deutschlandradio Kultur reporter Dieter Kranz called her "a theater legend".
  Internationally, Keller was known for her portrayal of the older Lilly Wust in the Golden Globe nominated Aimée & Jaguar. She won the Award for the Best Supporting Actress in the 36th International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival for her participation in the film Lola and Billy the Kid.
  In 2006, Keller received the Order of Merit of Berlin from Mayor Klaus Wowereit.
context_section_description: She and von Schnitzler married in 1952, but divorced in 1956; they had one daughter, Barbara, who also became an actress. In the same year, Keller also became a member of the National Front's National Council.
  During her long career in the Deutsches Theater, she depicted a large variety of roles. In 1952, she first portrayed Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, directed by Rudolf Noelte. Keller appeared as Doolittle in 472 performances through the years. In 1953, she depicted Emilia in Wolfgang Heinz's production of Othello, with Ernst Busch as Iago. Some other important roles she had in the 1950s included Goneril in Wolfgang Langhoff's 1957 staging of King Lear and Masha in his 1958 production of Three Sisters. In addition to theater, she also appeared in cinema and television, with a first notable role in Kurt Maetzig's 1950 film The Council of the Gods.
  On 30 March 1960, Keller received the Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic. On 6 October 1961, she received the National Prize of East Germany, 1st class, for her participation in the television miniseries Conscience in Turmoil: she played the wife of an army officer (Erwin Geschonneck) who chose to surrender Greifswald to the Red Army without a shot, saving the city from ruin. The series was based on the life of Colonel Rudolf Petershagen.
  On 4 October 1963, she first performed what was described as "the role of her life", that of the title character in Iphigenia in Tauris, Langhoff's last production before his death. Langhoff's son and theater director in his own right Thomas described her depiction of the Greek princess as "incomparable to anything". Der Tagesspiegel columnist Christoph Funke commented: "Keller turned that role into an unprecedented epitome in the portrayal of strong, self-aware women."
  In 1977, she received the National Prize once again. On 24 April 1981, she first appeared in one of her most remembered roles from the 1980s, as Julie in Danton's Death. On 18 November 1983, she performed Mrs. Alving in the East Berlin premiere of Ghosts, another of her stock characters from that decade, with Ulrich Mühe as Oswald.
caption: Keller as Iphigenia in a rehearsal on 2 October 1963, two days before the premiere
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