On 26 May 2020, the German actress and assistant director Irm Hermann passed away in Berlin after a short illness. She was the muse and a close friend of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and played roles in 24 of his films including Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant (1972). Overall, she appeared in over 160 film and television productions until 2018. Irm Hermann was 77.
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Margarete Redl-von Peinen.
Irmgard Hermann was born in 1942 in Munich, in Nazi Germany.
In 1966, she worked as a secretary at the ADAC, Germany's biggest automobile club, when she got to know Rainer Werner Fassbinder. They became close friends. He convinced her to quit her job to work with him although she lacked formal training as an actress.
In the same year, Hermann starred in her debut role in Fassbinder's short film Der Stadtstreicher/The City Tramp (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1966).
She and Fassbinder made 24 films and TV series together: Der Stadtstreicher (1966), Der Bräutigam, die Komödiantin und der Zuhälter (Jean-Marie Straub, 1968), Katzelmacher (1969), Liebe ist kälter als der Tod (1969), Götter der Pest (1970), Der amerikanische Soldat (1970), Effi Briest (1970), Warum läuft Herr R. Amok (1970), Pioniere in Ingolstadt (1971), Mathias Kneissl (Reinhard Hauff, 1971), the TV series Acht Stunden sind kein Tag (1972), Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant/The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), Händler der vier Jahreszeiten/The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972), Wildwechsel (1973; on which she was also the assistant director), Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe (Ulli Lommel, 1973), Angst essen Seele auf/Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Nora Helmer (1974), Angst vor der Angst (1975), Faustrecht der Freiheit (1975; on which she was also the assistant director), Mutter Küsters' Fahrt zum Himmel (1975), Schatten der Engel (Daniel Schmid, 1976), Frauen in New York (1977), the TV series Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), and Lili Marleen (1981).
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Peter Paul Hammerschmidt, Berlin.
German postcard by Verlag Hias Schaschko, München (Munich), no. 209. Photo: Rainer Werner Fassbinder during the shooting of Händler der vier Jahreszeiten/The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971), then still called Der Obsthändler/The Grocer.
In 1975, Irm Hermann left Munich and Fassbinder and moved to Berlin to be more independent. In 1976, she married children's book writer Dietmar Roberg. They had two children, son Franz Tizian Roberg (1977), and son Fridolin Roberg (1981).
In the cinema, she worked more often for other directors. She worked with Werner Herzog in his film Woyzeck (1979) starring Klaus Kinski, with Hans Geissendorfer in his Thomas Mann adaptation Der Zauberberg/The Magic Mountain (1982), with Rod Steiger, with Percy Adlon in Fünf letzte Tage/The Five Last Days (1982), and with Ulrike Ottinger in Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse/Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press (1984).
From 1987, she was an ensemble member of the Freie Volksbühne Berlin. She continued to make films, including Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia (Elrike Ottinger, 1989), Tigerstreifenbaby wartet auf Tarzan/Tigerstripe Baby Is Waiting for Tarzan (Rudolf Thome, 1998), the family film Mein Bruder ist ein Hund/My Brother Is a Dog (Peter Timm, 2004), the farce Reine Geschmacksache/Fashion victims (Ingo Rasper, 2007), and Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin/A Woman in Berlin (Max Färberböck, 2008) starring Nina Hoss.
Her later films included Fack ju Göhte 3/Suck Me Shakespeer 3 (Bora Dagtekin, 2017) with Elyas M'Barek and Katja Riemann, and Zwei Herren im Anzug/Two Men in Suits (Josef Bierbichler, 2018). Her last screen role was in the TV series Labaule & Erben (2019), the story of the publishing family Labaule in Germany.
Irm Hermann died in 2020 in Berlin, Germany.
German autograph card. Photo: Claudius Pflug.
Scene from Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant (1972) also with Margit Carstensen. Source: Emanuele Tealdi (YouTube).
Sources: Hans Beerekamp (Het Schimmenrijk - Dutch) Wikipedia and IMDb.
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Margarete Redl-von Peinen.
24 films with Fassbinder
Irmgard Hermann was born in 1942 in Munich, in Nazi Germany.
In 1966, she worked as a secretary at the ADAC, Germany's biggest automobile club, when she got to know Rainer Werner Fassbinder. They became close friends. He convinced her to quit her job to work with him although she lacked formal training as an actress.
In the same year, Hermann starred in her debut role in Fassbinder's short film Der Stadtstreicher/The City Tramp (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1966).
She and Fassbinder made 24 films and TV series together: Der Stadtstreicher (1966), Der Bräutigam, die Komödiantin und der Zuhälter (Jean-Marie Straub, 1968), Katzelmacher (1969), Liebe ist kälter als der Tod (1969), Götter der Pest (1970), Der amerikanische Soldat (1970), Effi Briest (1970), Warum läuft Herr R. Amok (1970), Pioniere in Ingolstadt (1971), Mathias Kneissl (Reinhard Hauff, 1971), the TV series Acht Stunden sind kein Tag (1972), Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant/The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), Händler der vier Jahreszeiten/The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972), Wildwechsel (1973; on which she was also the assistant director), Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe (Ulli Lommel, 1973), Angst essen Seele auf/Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Nora Helmer (1974), Angst vor der Angst (1975), Faustrecht der Freiheit (1975; on which she was also the assistant director), Mutter Küsters' Fahrt zum Himmel (1975), Schatten der Engel (Daniel Schmid, 1976), Frauen in New York (1977), the TV series Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), and Lili Marleen (1981).
German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Peter Paul Hammerschmidt, Berlin.
German postcard by Verlag Hias Schaschko, München (Munich), no. 209. Photo: Rainer Werner Fassbinder during the shooting of Händler der vier Jahreszeiten/The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971), then still called Der Obsthändler/The Grocer.
Independence in Berlin
In 1975, Irm Hermann left Munich and Fassbinder and moved to Berlin to be more independent. In 1976, she married children's book writer Dietmar Roberg. They had two children, son Franz Tizian Roberg (1977), and son Fridolin Roberg (1981).
In the cinema, she worked more often for other directors. She worked with Werner Herzog in his film Woyzeck (1979) starring Klaus Kinski, with Hans Geissendorfer in his Thomas Mann adaptation Der Zauberberg/The Magic Mountain (1982), with Rod Steiger, with Percy Adlon in Fünf letzte Tage/The Five Last Days (1982), and with Ulrike Ottinger in Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse/Dorian Gray in the Mirror of the Yellow Press (1984).
From 1987, she was an ensemble member of the Freie Volksbühne Berlin. She continued to make films, including Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia (Elrike Ottinger, 1989), Tigerstreifenbaby wartet auf Tarzan/Tigerstripe Baby Is Waiting for Tarzan (Rudolf Thome, 1998), the family film Mein Bruder ist ein Hund/My Brother Is a Dog (Peter Timm, 2004), the farce Reine Geschmacksache/Fashion victims (Ingo Rasper, 2007), and Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin/A Woman in Berlin (Max Färberböck, 2008) starring Nina Hoss.
Her later films included Fack ju Göhte 3/Suck Me Shakespeer 3 (Bora Dagtekin, 2017) with Elyas M'Barek and Katja Riemann, and Zwei Herren im Anzug/Two Men in Suits (Josef Bierbichler, 2018). Her last screen role was in the TV series Labaule & Erben (2019), the story of the publishing family Labaule in Germany.
Irm Hermann died in 2020 in Berlin, Germany.
German autograph card. Photo: Claudius Pflug.
Scene from Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant (1972) also with Margit Carstensen. Source: Emanuele Tealdi (YouTube).
Sources: Hans Beerekamp (Het Schimmenrijk - Dutch) Wikipedia and IMDb.
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