Mourning for Christiane Hörbiger: The “Grand Dame” is dead

She was one of the most popular actresses in German-speaking countries, starred in series, films and in the theatre. Christiane Hörbiger has now received multiple awards and has died in Vienna at the age of 84.

Christiane Hörbiger was born in Vienna in 1938 as the daughter of the famous couple Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger. But the mother initially had other plans for her daughter than acting: Hörbiger was supposed to be a confectioner: “I don’t know if the Janele confectionery still exists. My mother had already prepared an apprenticeship for me there. But with my father I then went to Hersfeld, who played ‘Jedermann’ there, as far as I know. And then they discovered me there,” Hörbiger once recalled.

So it started in the Hessian province, at the theater festival in Bad Hersfeld. In 1955, Hörbiger had her first film appearance in “The Major and the Bulls” by director Eduard von Borsody. Then she began acting training at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna – but broke it off again because she was already engaged for the next film: “Crown Prince Rudolf’s Last Love”.

In the shadow of famous parents

However, it was not easy for her as an actress in her early 20s because she was repeatedly compared to her famous parents. There were always bad reviews for her performances in Vienna’s Burgtheater. And she took that to heart, she later told the ORF. It was hard when it was written about her: “‘The role of Julia is played by the untalented daughter of Paula Wessely’. You have to cope with that first. There I am with my car – I remember it exactly – next to the riding school turned into such a narrow alley and cried bitterly.”

Her destiny: the film

Later she appeared more and more on television: from 1965 to 1970 as Christl Müller in the ARD-Series “Danube Stories”, alongside Willy Millowitsch. She became known to a larger audience as the Countess of Guldenburg in the ZDF series “The Legacy of the Guldenburgs”.

In 1992, Hörbiger starred alongside Götz George and Uwe Ochsenknecht in “Schtonk!” With. The film satire about Helmut Dietl’s Hitler diaries received an Oscar nomination for best foreign film. Hörbiger received glowing reviews for her role as Hermann Goering’s niece. But she also had an important theater career and was engaged for almost 20 years at the Zurich Schauspielhaus, where she took on major classical roles such as Elisabeth in Schiller’s “Maria Stuart”.

Hörbiger was one of the most popular actresses in German-speaking countries. She died in Vienna on Wednesday at the age of 84.