Sebastian Koch
Encyclopedia
Life and career
Koch was born in KarlsruheKarlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
and grew up in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. His mother raised him alone, and he spent some time in the children's home where she worked. From 1982 to 1985 Koch studied at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, and performed during this time with the Theater der Jugend (Youth Theatre).
After appearing at the municipal theatres of Ulm
Ulm
Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...
and Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
, Koch started appearing in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
theatres in 1990. There he acted in works including Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
's The Robbers, Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
's Iphigenie auf Tauris
Iphigenie auf Tauris
Iphigenia in Tauris is a reworking by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe of the ancient Greek tragedy Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις, Iphigeneia en Taurois, by Euripides. Goethe's chosen Latinized title for his work, however, is a false analogy to the title of Euripides's tragedy, which really means "Iphigenia...
, and Dirty Dishes by Nick Whitby. Besides numerous film and TV roles, Koch also made frequent cameos in popular German crime series during this time.
Following his acclaimed portrayal of Andreas Baader
Andreas Baader
Andreas Bernd Baader was one of the first leaders of the German left-wing militant organization Red Army Faction, also commonly known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang.- Life :...
in Heinrich Breloer's docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
Todesspiel, he appeared in many full-length television dramas.
His breakthrough roles came in 2001 with the portrayal of the kidnapped industrialist's son Richard Oetker in Dance with the Devil – The Kidnapping of Richard Oetker, and of the writer Klaus Mann
Klaus Mann
- Life and work :Born in Munich, Klaus Mann was the son of German writer Thomas Mann and his wife, Katia Pringsheim. His father was baptized as a Lutheran, while his mother was from a family of secular Jews. He began writing short stories in 1924 and the following year became drama critic for a...
in Heinrich Breloer's docudrama The Manns – A Novel of the Century. Koch received the Adolf Grimme Award for both roles, and is the only actor to have won the award for two different productions in one year. For his portrayal of Hitler's would-be assassin, the title character in Jo Baier's Stauffenberg
Stauffenberg (Film)
Stauffenberg is a German-Austrian TV movie released in 2004 by Das Erste , about Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler....
, Koch was nominated for the German Television Awards and the Grimme Award, and received the Golden Gong award from the media magazine Gong.
In 2004 Koch appeared in a Heinrich Breloer production for the third time. This time he played the Nazi architect Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
in Speer und Er
Speer und Er
Speer und Er is a three-part German docudrama starring Sebastian Koch as Albert Speer and Tobias Moretti as Adolf Hitler...
("Speer and He", released as Speer and Hitler: The Devil's Architect). 2006 saw the premiere in German cinemas of the drama Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others
The Lives of Others
The Lives of Others is a 2006 German drama film, marking the feature film debut of filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. The film involves the monitoring of the cultural scene of East Berlin by agents of the Stasi, the GDR's secret police...
), winner of the 2007 Academy Award for best international film, in which Koch played a leading role.
From 2006 to 2007 he appeared at Bochum
Bochum
Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area and is surrounded by the cities of Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, Witten and Hattingen.-History:...
Theatre after a 12-year absence from the stage, playing Lord Goring in Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's An Ideal Husband
An Ideal Husband
An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour...
. Again in 2006 he portrayed Reinhard Mohn
Reinhard Mohn
Reinhard Mohn was a German businessman who turned Bertelsmann, a "provincial, war-shattered German publisher", into the sixth largest media conglomerate in the world.-Early life:...
in the film adaptation of his life.
Koch lives in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and has a daughter with journalist Birgit Keller. He also had a relationship with actress Anna Schudt and Dutch actress Carice van Houten, whom he met on the set of Black Book (Dutch: Zwartboek).
Filmography
- Ein Lied von Liebe und TodEin Lied von Liebe und TodEin Lied von Liebe und Tod is a 1999 film, a German/Hungarian co-production.Although the movie centers on a romantic love triangle with tragic consequences, it has a strong history background, set in Hungary during World War II...
, a.k.a Gloomy Sunday (1999) - Der TunnelDer TunnelDer Tunnel is a made-for-television German film released in 2001 and loosely based on true events in Berlin followingthe closing of the East German border in August 1961 and the subsequent construction of the Berlin Wall....
, a.k.a The Tunnel (2001) - Amen. (2002)
- StauffenbergStauffenberg (Film)Stauffenberg is a German-Austrian TV movie released in 2004 by Das Erste , about Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler....
, a.k.a. Operation Valkyrie (2004) - Tödlicher Umweg, a.k.a. Deadly Diversion (2004)
- The Lives of OthersThe Lives of OthersThe Lives of Others is a 2006 German drama film, marking the feature film debut of filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. The film involves the monitoring of the cultural scene of East Berlin by agents of the Stasi, the GDR's secret police...
(2006) - Black Book (2006)
- The Shell SeekersThe Shell Seekers (mini-series)The Shell Seekers is a 2006 mini-series starring Academy Award-winners, Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell. The British-German co-production was directed by Piers Haggard. It is an adaptation of Rosamunde Pilcher's 1987 novel-of-the-same-name and premiered on Germany's ZDF on December 25th,...
(2006) - Sea Wolf (2009)
- Unknown (2011)
Awards
- 2001 - German Television Awards nomination for best supporting actor in Der Tunnel.
- 2002 - Grimme Award for his portrayal of Klaus MannKlaus Mann- Life and work :Born in Munich, Klaus Mann was the son of German writer Thomas Mann and his wife, Katia Pringsheim. His father was baptized as a Lutheran, while his mother was from a family of secular Jews. He began writing short stories in 1924 and the following year became drama critic for a...
in Die Manns; Bavarian Television Award ("Blue Panther") for the same role; Grimme Award for his portrayal of Richard Oetker in Dance with the Devil. - 2003 - DIVA Award; nominated for best German actor at the Verleihung der Goldenen KameraVerleihung der Goldenen KameraThe GOLDENE KAMERA is an annual German film and television award, awarded by the television magazine HÖRZU. The gold-plated silver award model was created by Berlin artist Wolfram Beck...
for his role in Napoleon. - 2004 - Golden Gong award for Stauffenberg; German Television Awards nomination for best leading actor in Stauffenberg.
- 2005 - "Blue Panther" award for his portrayal of Albert SpeerAlbert SpeerAlbert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
in Speer und Er; German Television Award for best leading role in Speer und Er. - 2006 - Die Quadriga award for The Lives of Others (shared with Ulrich MüheUlrich MüheFriedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe was a German film, television and theatre actor. He played the role of Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler in the Oscar-winning film Das Leben der Anderen , for which he received the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Gold, at Germany's most prestigious film...
and the film's director, Florian Henckel von DonnersmarckFlorian Henckel von DonnersmarckFlorian Maria Georg Christian, Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck is a German film director, best known for writing and directing the 2007 Oscar-winning film The Lives of Others and the 2010 film The Tourist.-Personal life and family:...
); BambiBambi (prize)The Bambi - Deutschlands Wichtigster Medienpreis, often simply called Bambi Awards and stylized as BAMBI, are presented annually by Hubert Burda Media to recognize excellence in international media and television "with vision and creativity who affected and inspired the German public that year",...
award for best actor (national).
External links
- Official website
- Sebastian Koch at his management's website
- Fan site
- Photographs of Sebastian Koch