Friedrich Hans Ulrich Bio: Children, Net Worth, Wife, Movies, Cancer, Awards, Controversy, Ethnicity, Death

Friedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe was a German actor and theatre director whose reputation rose through his fearless portrayals on stage and screen.

He first attracted widespread attention in Germany for his role in the long-running television crime series where his nuanced presence brought depth to forensic investigations.

His international breakthrough came with his performance as Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler in the film Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

In that role he embodied the moral and psychological transformation of a Stasi officer under surveillance, a performance that brought him acclaim and secured his place among the leading actors of his generation.

Profile

• Full name: Friedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe
• Date of birth: 20 June 1953
• Age: Deceased
• Gender: Male
• Place of birth: Grimma, East Germany
• State of origin: Saxony (formerly Bezirk Leipzig)
• Nationality: German
• Profession: Actor, Theatre Director
• Height: 1.78 m (5′10″)
• Parents: Father – Hans-Günther Mühe (furrier)
• Siblings: Brother – Andreas Mühe (worked in father’s workshop)
• Spouse: First – Annegret Hahn, second – Jenny Gröllmann (married in 1984), third – Susanne Lothar
• Children: Andreas Mühe; Konrad Mühe; Anna Maria Mühe; Sophie Marie Mühe; Jakob Mühe
• Relationship status: Deceased
• Religion: Christian
• Ethnicity: German
• Net worth: $10 million at the time of death

Early Life and Education

Friedrich Hans Ulrich Mühe was born on 20 June 1953 in the town of Grimma in what was then East Germany, and at the time of his death in 2007 he was 54 years old. He was raised in a working-class family: his father Hans-Günther Mühe was a furrier. After leaving school he completed training as a construction worker and subsequently served in the military border guards at the Berlin Wall in the National People’s Army.

During his service he developed stomach ulcers, which observers have linked to the stress of his posting and which later coincided with the medical issues that would affect him. From 1975 to 1979 he studied acting at the Theaterhochschule “Hans Otto” in Leipzig.

Personal Life

Ulrich Mühe’s personal life included three marriages and five children. His first marriage was to dramaturge Annegret Hahn, with whom he had two sons, Andreas and Konrad.

In 1984 he married actress Jenny Gröllmann—he and Gröllmann had a daughter, Anna Maria Mühe, who also became an actor.

After discovering evidence that he had been placed under surveillance by the Stasi and that Jenny Gröllmann was registered as an “Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter” (unofficial collaborator), the couple divorced in 1990.

At the time of his death he was married to his third wife, Susanne Lothar, and living in Berlin with her and their two children, Sophie Marie and Jakob.

Career

Ulrich Mühe began his acting career on stage and quickly became affiliated with major East German theatres. In 1983 he joined the ensemble of the Deutsches Theater in East Berlin by invitation of the director Heiner Müller, and there he took on roles ranging from Goethe’s Egmont and Ibsen’s Peer Gynt to the title role of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

On screen his breakthrough beyond East Germany came in 1989 when he played Lieutenant Theodor Lohse in Bernhard Wicki’s Das Spinnennetz. He displayed versatility in both comedic and serious film work such as the Oscar-nominated satire Schtonk! (1991) and Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (1997).

From 1998 until 2007 he starred as Dr. Robert Kolmaar in the television series Der letzte Zeuge (The Last Witness), which further solidified his prominence in German television. The pinnacle of his career arrived in 2006 when he portrayed Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler in Das Leben der Anderen, a performance that won him top honours in both Germany and Europe.

Awards and Nominations

• 2006 – Deutscher Filmpreis (Gold) for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for Das Leben der Anderen
• 2006 – European Film Awards: Best Actor for Das Leben der Anderen
• 1990 – Deutscher Darstellerpreis (“The Chaplin Shoe”) of Bundesverband der Fernseh- und Filmregisseure in Deutschland eV
• 1991 – Gertrud-Eysoldt-Ring
• 1992 – Bambi Award
• 1994 – Kainz-Medaille

Net Worth

Ulrich Mühe’s net worth was around $10 million at the time of his death. Earned from his extensive career in high-profile German film, television and theatre.

Death

Ulrich Mühe died on 22 July 2007 in Walbeck, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. His death was attributed to stomach cancer, a disease which had been diagnosed earlier and which had forced him into hospital treatment during the final months of his life. He was buried in his mother’s village of Walbeck on 25 July 2007.

Controversy

One significant controversy in Mühe’s life involved his discovery, after the reunification of Germany, of a Stasi file indicating that his second wife Jenny Gröllmann had collaborated with the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) between 1979 and 1989.

The actor publicly addressed the sense of betrayal this revelation produced, a parallel to his role in The Lives of Others. A legal battle followed, and Gröllmann successfully won an injunction that prevented publication of his statements in a book.

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Filmography

• Olle Henry (1983)
• Hälfte des Lebens (1985)
• Das Spinnennetz (1989)
• Hard Days, Hard Nights (1989)
• Sehnsucht (1990)
• Schtonk! (1992)
• Benny’s Video (1992)
• The Blue One (1994)
• Rudy, the Racing Pig (1995)
• Peanuts – Die Bank zahlt alles (1996)
• Engelchen (1997)
• Funny Games (1997)
• Night Time (1998)
• Rider of the Flames (1998)
• Straight Shooter (1999)
• Goebbels und Geduldig (2001)
• Amen. (2002)
• Spy Sorge (2003)
• Hamlet_X (2003)
• Schneeland (2005)
• The Lives of Others (2006)
• My Führer – Die wirklich wahrste Wahrheit über Adolf Hitler (2007)
• Nemesis (2010)