Sonja Sutter(1931-2017)

Proficient in Greek and Latin and self-taught in classic literature, Sonja Sutter was a captivating actress who achieved dramatic depths on both stage and screen during a career which commenced in 1951. A banker's daughter, she had completed a rudimentary education in her home town (Freiburg) where she also made her theatrical debut. She was 'discovered' for the screen by Luis Trenker during an audition for a Heimatfilm and passed along to the director Slatan Dudow who gave her a pivotal role in his post-war drama Frauenschicksale (1952). Affiliated with both East and West German cinema, Sutter then appeared in several prestige pictures, including Das Schweigen im Walde (1955) and Die Barrings (1955). Not until five years later did she get another opportunity to demonstrate her talent as the titular star of Lissy (1957), directed by Konrad Wolf. This anti-fascist drama, chronicling the lives of a working class family in 1930's Berlin under the Nazis, became one of Wolf's most famous films and was also the high point of Sutter's film career. Perhaps too closely identified with a particular type of character, she received fewer film offers from the West in the 60's. The creation of the Berlin Wall effectively ended her association with DEFA. Returning to the stage, Sutter became an ensemble member of the iconic Vienna Burgtheater in 1959. Her tenure with the company lasted four decades, with as many as seventy leading roles to her repertoire. She also regularly performed at the Salzburg Festival, her roles ranging from Strindberg's "Queen Christina" and Schiller's "Intrigue and Love" (Kabale und Liebe) to Gute Werke in Hugo von Hofmannsthal's medieval play "Everyman". Towards the end of her career, she concentrated increasingly on TV work, often guesting as genteel ladies in popular crime shows like Tatort (1970), Derrick (1974) and The Old Fox (1977).