Alfred Struwe was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 actor, best known for his television role as Dr. Alexander Wittkugel in Zahn um Zahn.

The son of a postman, he grew up with his five siblings in Marienburg. His first acting experience was in Hitler Youth

Hitler Youth

The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...

 summer camps. In 1944 he was called up first into the Reich Labour Service, then into the military. After attending officer training school in Hanover

Hanover

Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

, he was sent along with other young contemporaries into battle in the final days of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. In 1945 he rejoined his family in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

. Since his father, Gustav, was opposed to his making acting his career, he instead had to attend a police academy, until in 1948 it closed and he was also discharged. From then on, he was able to dedicate himself entirely to acting. He had already performed part-time in amateur productions and taken private acting lessons during his police training. In 1949 he joined the theater company in Greiz

Greiz

Greiz is a town in Thuringia, and it is the capital of the district of Greiz. Greiz is situated in eastern Thuringia on the river Weiße Elster....

 and subsequently was engaged in Brandenburg

Brandenburg

Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...

, Zittau

Zittau

Zittau is a city in the south east of the Free State of Saxony, Germany, close to the border tripoint of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. , there are 28,638 people in the city. It is part of the Görlitz district....

, Cottbus

Cottbus

Cottbus is a city in Brandenburg, Germany, situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree. As of , its population was .- History :...

, Karl-Marx-Stadt and Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

.

Struwe made his first appearance before the cameras in 1954, in the DEFA co-production Leuchtfeuer. Then beginning in the 1960s, his face was often seen on both movie and television screens. Several times he played the part of the would-be assassin of Hitler, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg

Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg

Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg commonly referred to as Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was a German army officer and Catholic aristocrat who was one of the leading members of the failed 20 July plot of 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler and remove the Nazi Party from...

. In 1985 he played what would become his signature role, the eccentric dentist Dr. Alexander Wittkugel in the television series Zahn um Zahn ("A Tooth for a Tooth"). This was so successful that in response to viewer demand the 7 projected episodes were extended and in the end 21 stories of "Dr. Wittkugel's Practices" were produced.

Struwe's daughter Catharina Struwe is likewise an actress, with, for example, a longstanding engagement at the Neue Bühne in Senftenberg.

With the dissolution of the Iron Curtain

Die Wende

marks the complete process of the change from socialism and planned economy to market economy and capitalism in East Germany around the years 1989 and 1990. It encompasses several processes and events which later have become synonymous with the overall process...

, the popular actor's life became quieter. Struwe made occasional further appearances on stage and on television, but otherwise enjoyed his retirement. He died in 1998 after a lengthy illness caused by pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

 and was buried in the Southwest Cemetery in Stahnsdorf

Stahnsdorf

Stahnsdorf is a municipality in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany.-Geography:It is situated 20 km southwest of Berlin , and 12 km east of Potsdam.-History:...

.

Filmography

• 1954: Leuchtfeuer
• 1963: Geheimarchiv an der Elbe
• 1963: Vanina Vanini (TV)
• 1966: Ohne Kampf kein Sieg (TV)
• 1968: Die Toten bleiben jung
• 1969: Krupp und Krause (TV)
• 1970: Befreiung
  Liberation (film series)
  Liberation is an epic five-part film series considered the most large-scale World War II film ever made in the Soviet Union. Filmed from 1967 to 1971, the first part was released during 1970 for the 25th anniversary of Victory Day...
  
  
• 1971: KLK Calling PTZ - The Red Orchestra
  KLK Calling PTZ - The Red Orchestra
  KLK Calling PTZ - The Red Orchestra is a 1971 East German film about the history of the Red Orchestra espionage ring.-Plot:...
  
  
• 1971: Istanbul-Masche (TV)
• 1972: Die Bilder des Zeugen Schattmann (TV)
• 1973: Das unsichtbare Visier (TV)
• 1974: Ulzana
• 1975: Fischzüge (TV)
• 1976: Im Staub der Sterne
• 1976: Polizeiruf 110 - Eine fast perfekte Sache (TV) (as Friedrich Bader)
• 1977: Polizeiruf 110 - Die Abrechnung (TV) (as Dr. Klaus Frowein)
• 1978: Zwei Betten in der Hohen Tatra (TV)
• 1979: Bis daß der Tod euch scheidet
• 1980: Archiv des Todes (TV series)
• 1980: Oben geblieben ist noch keiner (TV)
• 1981: Der ungebetene Gast (TV)
• 1981: Berühmte Ärzte der Charité: Der kleine Doktor (TV)
• 1982: Der lange Ritt zur Schule
• 1983: Verzeihung, sehen Sie Fußball? (TV)
• 1983: Automärchen 1983
• 1983: Frühstück im Bett (TV)
• 1983: Die lieben Luder (TV) (Sequel to Polizeiruf 110
• 1984: Front ohne Gnade (TV series)
• 1984: Mensch, Oma! (TV series, episode "Stefan ist weg!")
• 1985–88: Zahn um Zahn (TV series)
• 1987: Sachsens Glanz und Preußens Gloria: Gräfin Cosel (TV)
• 1989: Polizeiruf 110 - Variante Tramper (TV) (as Uwe Kellerbauer)
• 1990: Schauspielereien: Gesucht und gefunden (TV)
• 1991: Aerolina (TV series)
• 1992: Karl May (TV)
• 1997: Verdammtes Glück (TV)

External links