Hanne Brinkmann

German actress Hanne Brinkmann (1895-1984) appeared in 24 silent films between 1914 and 1929. During the First World War, she was a popular comedian who had her own film series.


German postcard by NPG, no. 807. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 2237. Photo: Mac Walten, Berlin.


German postcard in the Film Sterne Series by Rotophot, nr. 501/2. Photo: Decla. Publicity still for Das Mädel von nebenan (Otto Rippert, 1917) with Hella Moja in the foreground of the boat and Hanne Brinkmann in the background.

The girl-next-door

Hanne or Hanna Brinkmann was born Johanna Marie Luise Elisabeth Brinkmann in Hanover, Germany, in 1895.

Under her birth name, she started her career in 1913 on stage at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria. After the outbreak of the First World War, she returned to Germany. In Berlin, she made her film debut in Lache, Bajazzo!/Laugh Pagliacci! (Richard Oswald, 1914).

Soon she played bigger roles in films like Das Mädel von nebenan/The girl-next-door (Otto Rippert, 1917) starring Hella Moja, and Baroneßchen auf Strafurlaub/Little Baroness on criminal holiday (Otto Rippert, 1918) with Hans Albers.

During the war, Brinkmann developed into a popular comedian and in 1918, she starred in her own short-lived 'Hanne' series, specially tailored to her talents. The director of the series was actor-director Reinhold Schünzel, who had already acted with her in Die ledige Frau/The unmarried woman (Rudolf del Zopp, 1917).

Schünzel and Brinkmann married in 1919. A year later, she played a small part in her husband’s historical film Katharina die Große/Catherine the Great (Reinhold Schünzel, 1920) starring Lucie Höflich, Fritz Kortner and Fritz Delius. The film was an epic portrayal of the life of Catherine the Great of Russia, for which 4,000 extras and 500 horses were used.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 545/4. Photo: Decla. Alwin Neuss in the German silent film Der Cowboy (Alwin Neuss, 1918), in which he played a double role. The actress could be Hanne Brinkmann.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 618/2. Photo: Ring-Film. Bruno Kastner and Hanne Brinkmann in Artistentreue (Erik Lund, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 618/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Ring-Film. Bruno Kastner and Hanne Brinkmann in the German silent film Artistentreue/Faithful to the Species (Erik Lund, 1919).

Mother and child

In the early 1920s, Hanne Brinkmann temporarily withdrew from show business to devote herself to the education of her daughter Anne Marie, who was born in 1922.

In 1924, Brinkmann returned to the screen and played a supporting part in the drama Mutter und Kind/Mother and Child (Carl Froelich, 1924) starring Henny Porten, Friedrich Kayßler and Wilhelm Dieterle. It was remade in 1934 as a sound film of the same title also starring Porten.

Brinkmann only played supporting parts from then on. One of her best-known films was the historical drama Die Weber/The Weavers (Friedrich Zelnik a.k.a. Frederic Zelnik, 1927) starring Paul Wegener, an adaptation of the 1892 play by Gerhart Hauptmann based on a historical event. During the 1840s a group of Silesian weavers stage an uprising due to their concerns about the Industrial Revolution's impact on their lives.

In 1929 Brinkmann appeared opposite Georg Alexander in her last film, Was ist los mit Nanette?/What's up with Nanette? (Holger Madsen, 1929), and then retired from the cinema.

Later she divorced Reinhold Schünzel, who emigrated in 1937 with their daughter to the US. Hanne Brinkmann died in 1984 in München (Munich), Germany.


German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 38, group 43. Photo: Paul Westermeier, Hanne Brinkmann and Hans Albers in Baroneßchen auf Strafurlaub/Little Baroness on Punishment Holiday (Otto Rippert, 1917). Caption: "Paul Westermeier 'hantelt', Hans Albers darf in einer kleinen Nebenrolle Hanne Brinkmann in die Wange kneifen". (Paul Westermeier 'works out', Hans Albers - in a small secondary role - is allowed to pinch Hanne Brinkmann in the cheek.)


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 357/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K 2239. Photo: Mac Walten, Berlin.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 12 August 2023.