profile image

Werner Dissel

Aug 26, 1912 - Jan 22, 2003 (90 years old) in Köln, Germany

Werner Friedrich Dissel (26 August 1912 – 22 January 2003) was a German actor, director, and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime.

Dissel's began working as a newspaper photographer in the late 1920s. After the Nazis' rise to power, he became a member of an antifascist group headed by Harro Schulze-Boysen, and was involved in the resistance newspaper Wille zum Reich. Dissel was caught and imprisoned from 1937 to 1939. During his time in prison, the Gestapo arranged for Boysen to visit him, in the hope that something incriminating would be said while the two would be left alone in a tapped room; Boysen passed a cigarette pack to Dissel, on which he wrote that the police had no concrete evidence against him. After his release, Boysen convinced him to volunteer into the Wehrmacht, so he could "destroy Hitler's army from within". Dissel joined the armed forces shortly before the German Invasion of Poland, and served in a military meteorology unit. At 1942, he barely avoided an arrest during the Gestapo's crackdown on the Red Orchestra.

After the war, he openly joined the KPD and decided to pursue his old dream to become an actor. Dissel joined a cabaret in Wiesbaden, and in 1950 emigrated to East Germany. There he appeared in numerous plays, TV shows and movies. He worked with the Berliner Ensemble, DEFA and DFF. He continued his acting career after the reunification. In total, he appeared in more than a hundred film and television productions.

He received the Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic at a collective awarding in October 1986.

Source: Article "Werner Dissel" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.

Known For

poster
Polizeiruf 110
Herr Wolf
poster
Alarm for Cobra 11: The Motorway Police
Neighbor
poster
In aller Freundschaft
Herr Kagel
poster
Der Staatsanwalt hat das Wort
Matthes Horka
poster
Der letzte Zeuge
Karl Waller
poster
Auf eigene Gefahr
Schreiner
poster
Anatomy
Paulas Großvater
poster
Les Misérables
Brevet (uncredited)
poster
The Architects
Alter
poster
As Long as There’s Life in Me
Bethmann-Hollweg

Credits