Press
Michael Verhoeven is dead. Senta Berger’s husband and maker of the film “The White Rose” died on Monday at the age of 85 after a short, serious illness.
Munich – Michael Verhoeven celebrated international success with films such as “The White Rose” and “The Terrible Girl”. Now the film world and his wife Senta Berger are saying goodbye: Verhoeven died on April 22nd at the age of 85. His family shared this German press agency in Munich with. Accordingly, the director had a short, severe illness before his death Illness Suffered, the family did not initially elaborate on the cause of death. He will be buried in the closest circle on Friday.
Michael Verhoeven died: Born into an acting family and qualified as a doctor
Verhoeven was born in Berlin in 1938. He grew up in a theater family. His mother Doris was an actress, his father Paul an actor, theater and film director. Verhoeven himself performed in theater for the first time at the age of 13 in the play “Pünktchen und Anton”, based on a novel by Erich Kästner. Verhoeven received his first film role in “The Flying Classroom” (1953), also a Kästner adaptation.
After further roles in “The Pauker” (1958) and “The Youth Judge” (1960) directed by his father, Verhoeven decided to become a doctor after graduating from high school in 1957 and thus studied medicine in Munich, Berlin and Homburg. He completed this in 1969 with a doctorate on “psychiatric masking of brain tumors”.
Verhoeven married Senta Berger in 1966 – and founded Sentana Filmproduktions with her
During his studies, however, Verhoeven continued to be active as an actor and started as an independent filmmaker. On the set of “Jack and Jenny” (1963), Verhoeven met his wife Senta Berger. In 1966 they got married and the two founded Sentana Film Production. In 1967 Verhoeven made his debut as a film director with “Parungen”.
Loud filmportal.de Hardly any other director has dealt with political issues so consistently and directly in his works. The main focus was on coming to terms with National Socialism. He repeatedly caused discussions with his films.
Verhoeven’s successes: “The White Rose” caused discussions – “The Terrible Girl” was nominated for an Oscar
This is also the case in his most famous work, “The White Rose” (1982). The film credits criticized the fact that the death sentences of the “People’s Court” against the resistance group were still considered legally valid by the German judiciary. The presentation led to a major debate, and the verdicts were only overturned in 1998.
“The Terrible Girl” (1991) showed how a girl collects information about her hometown’s Nazi past and is met with hostility for it. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1991. Again and again, resistant women play his leading roles, as was the case in his last film “Mother’s Courage” (1994), in which he dealt with National Socialism.
This was later followed by works such as “The Unknown Soldier” in 2006, in which he dealt with British war crimes in the Second World War. This year he also received the Achievement Award from the Jewish Film Festival. He also dealt with the US death penalty with his work “The Second Execution – America and the Death Penalty” (2011). In 2016, Verhoeven became active in the cinema again as producer of “Welcome to the Hartmanns” directed by his son Simon Verhoeven.
Federal Cross of Merit and more: Michael Verhoeven received these awards
He was a co-founder of the German Film Academy in 2003 and is the recipient of numerous film prizes as well as political awards, including the Josef Neuberger Medal (1997) awarded by the Central Council of Jews, the Federal Cross of Merit (1999) and the Bavarian Order of Merit (2002). In January 2022 he was awarded the Helmut Käutner Prize from the state capital Düsseldorf for his life’s work.
Recently, the film world also mourned the death of cult director Percy Adlon, who died at the age of 88. There is also great sadness for the late cult actor Fritz Wepper.