Best German actress

Romy was half Austrian, but for me she was the best actress of this list(and not only)by far!

Romy is one of the greatest actresses ever! Incredibly expressive. If she was American she could have reached the fame and heights that follows Meryl Streep or Katharine Hepburn.

Unforgettable and a real actress, not only a star.

ELKE SOMMER!!!!

Luise Rainer!

Heidi Klum!

Karl Lagerfeld!

Renate Müller

I eat German shit.

Am I over already?

Nina Foch.

Hildegarde Knef

Marisa Berenson!

We need a thread for best German sausages.

Ute Lemper

The answer is Uta Hagen.

Eva Mattes was great in Woyzeck with Klaus Kinski.

Both of them are great. Kinski was a complete nut case, but very talented. Love the documentary Werner Herzog did about him - My dearest fiend. Worth watching just because there is a scene played by Jason Robards and then the same scene with Kinski shown in comparison.

Who said good directing is 90% choosing good actors to play the roles? Very true!

Hanna Schygulla in the Marriage of Maria Brown gives one of the best performances in the history of cinema.

Barbara Sukowa is pretty amazing in Lola.

Fraulein Sally Bowles!

Another flop poll.

Ze bump for more responses!

Queen Elizabeth II!!

What R16 said about Schygulla in Marriage.

Zarah Leander

Marlene Dietrich, did not act, she POSED!

Excepting a few early films, she may have been an icon but she wasn't an actress at all.

Schygulla's fab but I always preferred Margit Carstensen in Fassbinder's films - she oozed the repugnant aspect that was so important to his world-view (I say that with love)

ARE YOU NUTS? Dietrich comes first in this poll? Excuse me? Dietrich was not near as good an actress as ROMY SCHNEIDER was. Romy beats them all. No one like like Romy! She combined beauty and charm with instinct, cleverness and sensitivity. ROMY SCHNEIDER ALL THE WAY! It's a disgrace that you gave Dietrich more votes. You have no idea about acting, clearly!

ROMY WAS NATURAL AS WELL, SHE WAS NOT JUST A DIVA.

Helmut Berger.

"Nina Foch"

Foch was not German. She was a Dutch born, half Dutch half American actress.

ROMY, ROMY, ROMY!

Romy's ass.

Eva Braun. Girl knew how to fake an orgasm! (And knew the penalty for NOT doing so!)

Rin Tin Tin

R2: Elke Sommers is Swedish, not German

Oops, my apologies, Elke Sommers is German. I was thinking of someone else when I saw her name.

You also misspelled her name, R32/R33.

What about that high foreheaded actress of today, Diane Kruger?

Leni Riefenstahl

I recently watched "Barbara" with Nina Hoss and I was really impressed with the depth and subtlety of her acting.

I am going to watch "A Woman in Berlin" next to see how different she is in that film.

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

Why exactly was DL fave Luise Rainer nicknamed "Viennese Teardrop" if she was German? Well, it certainly sounds better than "Dusseldorfian Teardrop"!

R39 She grew up in Vienna and was part of legendary Max Reinhardt's Vienna theatre group. Plus, she became famous in America in the days when Hitler already became a major threat to the world so the studios probably wanted people to think she's Austrian, not German.

That's kind of hillarios since Hitler was actually an Austrian, not German. But even today most people don't know that. Someone once said that the greatest Austrian achievement was convincing the world that Hitler was German and Beethowen was Austrian.

Did anyone mention Lili Palmer? Her career lasted from the 30s to the mid-1980s when she returned to the stage (after a detour as a writer) to play Bernhardt in "Sarah in America" at the Kennedy Center. She was so beautiful and elegant and she appeared in everything from Hitchcock movies to co-starring with then husband Rex Harrison in comedies.

Contemporary: Liv Lisa Fries of Babylon Berlin. Love her and love the series!

Franka Potente

Hannelore Elsner!

Marianne Sagebrecht

Little known fact: Ingrid Bergman was german. From a nazi family. Tactfully ' forgot ' all about it when moved to Sweden. Romy Shneider was austrian. Her mother was Adolf H. 's muse and mistress. Grew up near uncle Adolf 's eagle nest = alcoholism & self hatred later in life.

Nastassja Kinski was once the most beautiful woman in the world, and was great in a number of films. Dietrich was a fantastic actress. Especially in Catherine the great, and the Shangai express or something

....

She was great in Fear of Fear, R16.

Great movie, too.

Paula Beer

R37 Please also watch Yella and Phoenix. They are both incredibly haunting and provocative movies. Closer to the films of the 60s and 70s ,nothing like the crap Hollywood churns out today. Hoss is a genuine star!

Agree Romy Schneider was a wonderful actress who could play drama and madcap comedy. I was introduced to her as a teenager watching her American comedies Good Neighbor Sam and What’s New, Pussycat? on television. I was struck by her beauty and warm, appealing screen persona.

Fassbinder assembled a troupe of formidable actresses and he seems to have had a gift for coaxing great performances out of them. For me, the most haunting film of his post-war trilogy was Veronika Voss, with a devastating performance by Rosel Zech.

Angela Winkler. Of course.

Diane Kruger

Tim Kruger

Contemporary: Sandra Hüller, based on her performance in Toni Erdmann alone

Nena.

R56 They're planning an American remake with Jack Nicholson. It will probably be awful. But yes, Hullers performance was quite good.

Another vote for Tim Kruger. LOVE her. Impressive career and achievements.

OP, you don't have Paula Beer who has been mesmerizing in everything she does!!!

Gina Wild, hands down.