His most famous role was cheeky detective Horst Schimanski, but he did much more and shone in many character roles. Götz George († 77) became famous in the film adaptations of Karl May’s book designs already in the 1960s and towards the end of his career he shone as a character actor. He showed his acting versatility in tragic roles, but also enjoyed comedies.
Both Hitler and Goebbels were fans of his father
Götz George was born on July 23, 1938 in Berlin into an acting family. Both parents were well-known actors – Heinrich George, the most famous film and stage actor in National Socialist Germany, and Berta Drews, a well-known stage actress. His father, as the director of the Schiller Theater in Berlin, was close to Reich Minister Josef Goebbels and Hitler was a big fan of it. He has repeatedly allowed himself to be portrayed in the media as a supporter of the Nazi regime, he reports
The Soviet NKVD secret police arrested him in June 1945. After more than a month in detention, he was sent to the Hohenschönhausen camp as a “Nazi propagandist” and a “fascist actor”. In the summer of 1946, Heinrich George was sent to the former concentration camp Sachsenhausen, which functioned as a Soviet special camp. He died on September 25, physically emaciated and exhausted, from the effects of an appendectomy.
He was only found after 50 years in a mass grave, when his son Götz never stopped looking for him. One excavated body in a grave near Sachsenhausen could have belonged to Heinrich, which was later confirmed by DNA tests. The family could finally find out what happened to him.
Legendary commissioner Horst Schimanski
He gained cult status thanks to the role of tough commissioner Horst Schimansky, who fights crime in the city of Duisburg. He portrayed this fictional character a total of 48 times over the course of 32 years, spending a large part of his life with the commissioner. However, he did not take the fame and after arguments with the producers came the definitive end.
In 1996, he suffered a serious injury and he was in danger of having his entire leg amputated. His tibia was crushed by a speedboat that hit him while on vacation in Sardinia. After recovery, they followed each other four years of legal wrangling with the German couple who steered the boat. The court eventually won and received high compensation. To make matters worse, his girlfriend left him after 13 years and threw herself into the arms of a man ten years younger. He died on June 19, 2016 after a short illness.
