KULTURTALK with Robert Rauh
He never set out to become an actor, nor did he want to end up in Hollywood. What Henry Hübchen did want, however, was to have fun at work. And it’s this joy of performing that makes him so beloved by his audience. The renowned actor Henry Hübchen speaks with host Robert Rauh about his eventful career—covering theater, film, and music. The musical accompaniment for the evening is provided by singer, musician, and composer Günther Fischer, who, among other things, composed many film scores for productions starring Marlene Dietrich, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Manfred Krug, Robert Mitchum, and Tony Curtis. Henry Hübchen is rarely seen on talk shows, but here he answers questions from host, presenter, and author Robert Rauh, who most recently published the two books *Fontane’s Five Castles * and *Fontane’s Women *. The audience can look forward to an extremely amusing and entertaining evening with surprising insights and fascinating perspectives on Henry Hübchen’s eventful life.
Henry Hübchen was born in Charlottenburg—even if you wouldn’t immediately guess it—but grew up in the eastern part of the city. Henry Hübchen was born in Berlin in 1947 and initially began studying physics before transferring to the renowned Ernst Busch Acting School. At just 19 years old, he appeared on camera for the first time in the DEFA Western *Die Söhne der großen Bärin* (*The Sons of the Great Bear*). He rose to fame, alongside Armin Mueller-Stahl and Erwin Geschonneck, playing the role of the young Jewish man Mischa in Frank Beyer’s masterpiece *Jakob, the Liar*, the only DEFA film ever nominated for an Oscar. Starting in 1974, Hübchen performed under Heiner Müller and Benno Besson at Berlin’s Volksbühne, where he and artistic director Frank Castorf attracted attention with productions of Tennessee Williams’ *A Streetcar Named Desire* and became the voice of an entire generation of theater artists.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he continued his career but turned his focus more toward film. He gave compelling performances as a melancholic detective in the crime series *Polizeiruf 110*, as an alcoholic movie star in Andreas Dresen’s *Whisky mit Wodka*, and as a crisis-stricken mayor in Leander Haußmann’s *Hai-Alarm am Müggelsee*. For his role as the unemployed former East German sports reporter Jaeckie Zucker in the hit film *Alles auf Zucker*, he received the German Film Award for Best Actor in 2005. Hübchen’s most recent film roles include the lead parts in the film adaptation of the popular *Känguru-Chroniken*, directed by Dani Levy, as well as Leander Haußmann’s Stasi comedy. Henry Hübchen possesses the rare talent of elevating every film, which is why he is highly sought after by directors and producers. Hardly any German actor is as versatile as Henry Hübchen. But he is never truly satisfied: “Basically, I am my own biggest critic.”
What is less well known is that Hübchen performed as a singer with the bands The Continentals and Klosterbrüder on the TV show *Notenbank* and wrote several songs for the band CITY, including the hit “Casablanca.”
In addition, in the early 1980s, he was a two-time GDR champion in “Brettsegeln,” as surfing was called in the East. “I still don’t have a life plan—not even a daily plan,” the actor said in an interview, but he added that this relative lack of planning has served him quite well so far.
So there’s a lot to talk about!
