The actress Karin Baal holds the Götz George Prize in her hands. Karin Baal has made more than a hundred films – from post-war classics to “Tatort”. Image: DPA
30.11.2024, 10:0730.11.2024, 10:33
The film “The Half-Strongs” made her a legend at a young age: The actress Karin Baal is dead. She died on Tuesday at the age of 84 in Berlin, her children told the German Press Agency. “She shaped a generation and will never be forgotten. “It’s tearing a huge hole – not just in our family, but in Berlin and all of Germany,” said Therese Lohner and Thomas Baal, the actress’s children, on Saturday.
Baal became known in the 1950s with “The Half-Strongs”. The black and white film tells of several young people in post-war Berlin, their living conditions and criminal activities.
Karin Baal (archive photo from 1962). The German actress, who became known in the 1956 film “Die Halbstarken”, became an idol among teenagers in the late 1950s. Image: DPA
Hailed as the German answer to Brigitte Bardot
When Baal was hired for the film, she was still a teenager herself. She was born in Berlin in 1940 and later began training as a fashion illustrator. From among hundreds of applicants, she was finally hired for “Die Halbstarken”, in which Horst Buchholz also starred. Baal took on the female lead role of Sissy.
The film became a classic of post-war German cinema – and Baal was later celebrated as the German answer to Brigitte Bardot.
Appearances in Edgar Wallace films and in “Berlin Alexanderplatz”
Afterwards she was seen in a number of films and series. These include “The Girl Rosemarie”, “We Cellar Children” and “The Young Sinner”.
She also appeared in Edgar Wallace films and in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Berlin Alexanderplatz”. She also had roles in series such as “Liebling Kreuzberg” and “Schwarzwaldklinik”. She was also seen more often in TV crime dramas – such as “Tatort”.
In 2018, Baal was honored for her life’s work with the inaugural Götz George Prize. At the time, the Götz George Foundation honored Baal as a “great actress and admirable woman.” It was said at the time that she opened up to her characters relentlessly and with touching devotion, thereby making even the finest nuances of their wide range of emotions visible.
The actress lived in Berlin until the end
In pictures from recent years, Baal was seen in a wheelchair. But even though in her old age she repeatedly thought about moving to Vienna to be with her daughter, the actress lived in Berlin until the end, as her daughter Therese Lohner said. “She loved Berlin too much and really wanted to stay in her beloved Charlottenburg.” (sda/dpa)
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