Quick Facts
Biography
Hans Klering (8 November 1906 - 30 October 1988) was a German actor, director, voice actor, graphic designer and author. He joined the Communist Party and went into exile in the Soviet Union in 1931, returning to Germany in 1945. In 1946, he became a co-founder of DEFA, an East German film studio, as well as one of its directors and board members.
Biographical details
Born Hans Karl Scharnagl in Berlin, he apprenticed himself from 1921 to 1924, but at the end, was unemployed. Later, he worked on the docks and as a sign painter. In 1926, he joined the Communist Party of Germany. He was a member of several agitprop theater groups in Cologne and Berlin, including the Rote Raketen (Red Rocket), Blaue Blusen (Blue Blouse), and the Left Column. As the political situation in Germany worsened, Klering fled to Moscow in 1931, where he continued to work with the Left Column. He was later arrested as part of the so-called Hitler Youth Conspiracy.
After the war, he returned to Germany in 1945. In 1946, he became one of the founders of DEFA, the Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft. A former graphic designer, Klering designed DEFA's logo. Until 1950, he was a director and member of its board of directors. After 1950, he played small roles in numerous DEFA films. In 1969, he played Mitch Chandler, a supporting role in the DEFA film Tödlicher Irrtum ("Deadly Error"), one of its "Indian films" produced as an East German version of West Germany's Karl May films.
Klering died in East Berlin in 1988.
Selected filmography
- Okraina (1933)
- Bogdan Khmelnitskiy (1941)
- The Last Year (1951)
- The Call of the Sea (1951)
- Swelling Melodies (1955)
- Polonia-Express (1957)
- My Wife Makes Music (1958)
- The Dress (1961)
- Kein Ärger mit Cleopatra (1960)
- Reserviert für den Tod (1963)
- Hands Up, Or I'll Shoot (1966/2009)
- The Heathens of Kummerow (1967)
- Mohr und die Raben von London (1968)
- Husaren in Berlin (1971)