Hertha Thiele (8 May 1908 5 August 1984) was a German actress. She is
noted for her starring roles in then controversial stage plays and
films produced during Germany's Weimar Republic and the early years of
the Third Reich. After the post-war partition of Germany, Thiele
became a television star in East Germany. She is best remembered for
her portrayal of Manuela in the lesbian-themed film Mdchen in Uniform
(1931).One of her early drama teachers told Thiele "Either you'll have
a great stage career or nothing at all. You have a Botticelli face but
one which suggests depravity". Thiele began her professional acting
career in 1928 as a stage actress in Leipzig. In 1931, she was given
the lead role in Gestern und heute, the film adaptation of a play she
had done there, but now called Mdchen in Uniform, a tale set in a
Prussian boarding school for girls. The film had an all-female cast,
and Thiele played Manuela, a 14-year-old schoolgirl deeply infatuated
with her teacher Frulein von Bernburg, played by Dorothea Wieck.
Mdchen in Uniform was distributed internationally and briefly made
Thiele a star. She received thousands of fan letters, mostly from
women.In 1932, she starred with Ernst Busch in Bertolt Brecht's Kuhle
Wampe. In 1933, Thiele had a leading role in Kleiner Mann, was nun?
and reunited with Dorothea Wieck in Anna and Elizabeth, another
lesbian-themed film that was banned by the Nazis soon after it opened
and which she later said was the most important work of her career.
She also continued to work in theatre during the early 1930s,
including productions with Max Reinhardt (Harmonie, 1932) and Veit
Harlan (Veronika, 1935).Her career was thwarted when the Nazi
government approached her with repeated requests to assist in the
production of National Socialist propaganda. During one meeting with
propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels, who advised Thiele to
"familiarise" herself with National Socialism, she replied "I don't
blow with the wind each time it changes directions". Although she made
efforts to reach a workable understanding with Goebbels, the Nazis had
come to view her work as mostly subversive, and she was excluded from
the Reichstheater and Reichsfilmkammer. In 1937, she left Germany for
Switzerland. It was another five years before she was able to find
acting work in Bern.
noted for her starring roles in then controversial stage plays and
films produced during Germany's Weimar Republic and the early years of
the Third Reich. After the post-war partition of Germany, Thiele
became a television star in East Germany. She is best remembered for
her portrayal of Manuela in the lesbian-themed film Mdchen in Uniform
(1931).One of her early drama teachers told Thiele "Either you'll have
a great stage career or nothing at all. You have a Botticelli face but
one which suggests depravity". Thiele began her professional acting
career in 1928 as a stage actress in Leipzig. In 1931, she was given
the lead role in Gestern und heute, the film adaptation of a play she
had done there, but now called Mdchen in Uniform, a tale set in a
Prussian boarding school for girls. The film had an all-female cast,
and Thiele played Manuela, a 14-year-old schoolgirl deeply infatuated
with her teacher Frulein von Bernburg, played by Dorothea Wieck.
Mdchen in Uniform was distributed internationally and briefly made
Thiele a star. She received thousands of fan letters, mostly from
women.In 1932, she starred with Ernst Busch in Bertolt Brecht's Kuhle
Wampe. In 1933, Thiele had a leading role in Kleiner Mann, was nun?
and reunited with Dorothea Wieck in Anna and Elizabeth, another
lesbian-themed film that was banned by the Nazis soon after it opened
and which she later said was the most important work of her career.
She also continued to work in theatre during the early 1930s,
including productions with Max Reinhardt (Harmonie, 1932) and Veit
Harlan (Veronika, 1935).Her career was thwarted when the Nazi
government approached her with repeated requests to assist in the
production of National Socialist propaganda. During one meeting with
propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels, who advised Thiele to
"familiarise" herself with National Socialism, she replied "I don't
blow with the wind each time it changes directions". Although she made
efforts to reach a workable understanding with Goebbels, the Nazis had
come to view her work as mostly subversive, and she was excluded from
the Reichstheater and Reichsfilmkammer. In 1937, she left Germany for
Switzerland. It was another five years before she was able to find
acting work in Bern.
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