RIP Ruth-Maria Kubitschek

 

Ruth Maria Kubitschek is dead

The actress Ruth Maria Kubitschek shaped German television for decades. She died in Switzerland at the age of 92.

Zeit

June 2, 2024

The actress Ruth Maria Kubitschek has died. "The grande dame of German film and television acting has quietly said goodbye to life in her adopted home of Switzerland after a short, serious illness," her spokeswoman Yvonne von Stempel told the dpa news agency. Kubitschek was 92 years old.

For many years, the actress had shaped German television. She played for ZDF on board the Traumschiffs and in the series Das Erbe der Guldenburgs. She starred in Tatort for ARD. Kubitschek gained great popularity in the eighties alongside Helmut Fischer as Annette von Soettingen alias Spatzl in the TV series Monaco Franze – Der ewige Stenz of the Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Kubitschek was born in 1931 in Chomutov (Komotau) in what is now the Czech Republic on the edge of the Ore Mountains. Towards the end of the Second World War, her family fled to Saxony-Anhalt. After attending drama schools in Halle and Weimar, she made her debut as Fina in Brecht's Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti in Halle. Within a few years, she became a star of GDR television and Defa film. In 1959, she went to the West with her son. Her husband, the opera and theatre director Götz Friedrich, remained in the GDR, but was also allowed to stage productions in the West.

"In deep gratitude I move to the other world"

At the Schlosstheater in Celle, Kubitschek's West German career began. Roles in television productions soon followed: appearances in Die Sendung der Lysistrata (1961), Die Powenzbande (1973) or the title role in the TV three-parter Melissa (1966). In 1985, she shot the successful series Kir Royal – again with Helmut Dietl – in which the Munich chic was made fun of. In 2013, she finally played her last role in the feature film Frau Ella.

Kubitschek has been awarded several prestigious prizes in the course of her career. Among other things, she received the Golden Camera and a Bambi in 1987 and another Bambi for her life's work in 2011. In 2013 she was awarded the Bavarian Television Prize. In 2004 she received the Federal Cross of Merit First Class and in 2010 the Bavarian Order of Merit.

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) paid tribute to the deceased actress: "The News of the death of Ruth Maria Kubitschek is sad and ", he said. "She shone for decades as a Actress in film, television and theatre. Particularly unforgotten is her role as a wife and antithesis in the cult series Monaco Franze."

Kubitschek had been Swiss since 2013 and lived in Ascona. She died in a hospital, her spokeswoman said. Her last words were: "The earth gave me a beautiful home in this world. In deep gratitude I move to the other world. They exist, believe me." The funeral service should take place in the closest family circle.

KUBITSCHEK, Ruth-Maria

Born: 8/2/1931, Komotau, Czechoslovakia

Died: 6/1/2024, Switzerland

 

Ruth-Maria Kubitschek’s western – voice actress:

Old Shatterhand – 1964 [German voice of Daliah Lavi)