Günter Lamprecht (1930-2022)

On 4 October, German actor Günter Lamprecht (1930-2022) passed away in Bonn, Germany. He played many complex character roles in theatre, film and television and had his big breakthrough as Franz Biberkopf in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's monumental television series Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980). Later he became popular as commissioner Franz Markowitz in the Krimi series Tatort (1991-1995). He also appeared in such films as Die Ehe der Maria Braun (1978), Das Boot (1981) and Comedian Harmonists (1997). Lamprecht was 92.


German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Mara Eggert.

Berlin Alexanderplatz

Günter Hans Lamprecht was born in 1930 in Berlin. He was the son of a taxi driver and a cleaning lady. His father was an alcoholic and abused his mother. At the age of 15, Günter was a medic in the final phase of the Second World War in the Battle of Berlin. After the end of the war, he first became an apprentice orthopaedic mechanic (someone who makes prostheses). He also trained as an amateur boxer with European Heavyweight Champion Bubi Scholz.

In 1953, he began to study acting at the Max Reinhardt Seminar and two years later made his debut at Berlin's Schiller Theatre. His first permanent theatre engagement then followed at the Schauspielhaus Bochum, from where he moved to the Theater Oberhausen, where he was engaged from 1959 to 1961. Lamprecht often played roles as 'the common man' in plays, such as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' 'Endstation Sehnsucht' (A Streetcar Named Desire) and John in Gerhard Hauptmann's 'Die Ratten' (The Rats).

His first television roles were mostly in adaptations of plays, such as Schwank Der Meisterboxer (1968) alongside Willy Millowitsch and Lucy Millowitsch. He also starred in the TV series Kara Ben Nemsi Effendi (Günter Gräwert, 1973) based on the travel stories by Karl May, and Stellenweise Glatteis/Black ice in places (Wolfgang Petersen, 1975).

His first film role was in Das Messer im Rücken/A Knife in the Back (Ottokar Runze, 1975). For his role in the film Das Brot des Bäckers/Baker's Bread (Erwin Keusch, 1976), he worked in a bakery for three weeks to immerse himself in his role. Lamprecht won the Ernst Lubitsch Award for his performance. In Peter Beauvais' film Ruckfalle/Relapses (1977), he played the role of an alcoholic and received a Goldene Kamera for it.

In 1973, filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder cast Lamprecht in his Science-Fiction series Welt am Draht/World on a Wire (1973). Fassbinder gave Lamprecht a leading role in the feature film Die Ehe der Maria Braun/The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979) opposite Hanna Schygulla and then another lead in the TV miniseries Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1980), an acclaimed adaptation of Alfred Döblin's 1929 novel. The latter role, as Franz Biberkopf, marked his big breakthrough as an actor. He received much critical praise and international awards.


Dutch postcard by Eye. Reproduction of the poster for the German Science-Fiction film Welt am Draht/World on a Wire (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1973).


German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: SFB / Michael Haring. Günter Lamprecht as commissioner Franz Markowitz in Tatort (1991-1995).

Tatort Berlin

Günter Lamprecht became particularly popular in Germany for his role as the Berlin commissioner Franz Markowitz in the Krimi series Tatort/Crime Scene (1991-1995). This was followed by many roles in films and television series, such as Die große Flatter/The great flutter (Marianne Lüdcke, 1979), as the captain of the supply ship Weser in the epic war film Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981) and as director Erik Charell in Comedian Harmonists/The Harmonists (Joseph Vilsmaier, 1997) about the popular German vocal group the Comedian Harmonists of the 1920s and 1930s.

In 1999, Lamprecht and his partner Claudia Amm were seriously injured after being shot at by 16-year-old Martin Peyerl after a performance in Bad Reichenhall. Four other people were killed in the shooting (three passers-by and his sister), after which the perpetrator committed suicide, bringing the death toll to five.

Lamprecht wrote down his experiences during Hitler's Third Reich in the book 'Und wehmütig bin ich immer noch. Eine Jugend in Berlin' (And Sadly I'm Still: A Youth in Berlin). In 2007, the second part of this autobiography was published: 'Ein höllisches Ding, das Leben' (A Hellish Thing, Life). The title is a quote from Berlin Alexanderplatz. In the constituency where he lived, he devoted himself to charity and the environmental movement. Since 1994, he was a patron of the artist project ARTCORE in Solingen. He was politically active and supported the SPD.

Lamprecht worked as an actor into old age, although he limited his filming workload after the turn of the millennium. In 2016, he played the former chief detective Franz Markowitz in the 1000th Tatort episode Taxi nach Leipzig/Taxi to Leipzig (Alexander Adolph, 2016), having already starred in the pilot episode of the same name in 1970. In 2017, he played Reich President Paul von Hindenburg in the first season of the crime series Babylon Berlin (Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, Hendrik Handloegten, 2017). In 2019, he was in front of the camera for the last time for the television film Meeresleuchten/Sea Lights (Wolfgang Panzer, 2021).

Günter Lamprecht died in 2022 at the age of 92 in the Bad Godesberg district of his home town of Bonn. Lamprecht was married to actress Gisela Zülch (1967-1997) and then became the partner of actress Claudia Amm, with whom he lived until his death.


German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg. Photo: Michael Haring. Signed in 2000.

Sources: Wikipedia (German, Dutch and English), and IMDb.