Rosa von Praunheim
Born: 1942-11-25 in Riga, Latvia
Died: 2025-12-17
Known For: Directing
Biography
Rosa von Praunheim, born Holger Bernhard Bruno Waldemar Mischwitzky, was a German film director, author, painter and the most famous gay rights activist in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A prolific director, he has made over seventy feature films. He began his career associated to the New German Cinema as a senior member of the Berlin school of underground filmmaking. He took the artistic female name Rosa von Praunheim to remind people of the pink triangle that homosexuals had to wear in Nazi concentration camps.
Filmography
2026
- Mein liebster Dokumentarfilm as Self
2025
- Rosa <3 as Self (archive footage)
- Satanic Sow ... (Director)
- Last Exit Gran Canaria as Self
2024
- Thirty Years with the Whip ... (Director)
- Hape Kerkeling – Total Normal as Self
2022
2021
- Legendär! as Self
- Meine Väter as Self
- Isolation as Self
- Die Nachtigall – Der grausame Sohn ... (Director)
- Queer Cinema as Himself
2020
- Operndiven - Operntunten ... (Director)
- Smart Berlin – Der „Stutti“
2019
- Chez Krömer as Self
- Darkroom
2018
- Friendship of Men as Himself
2017
- Abendshow as Self
- Survival in Berlin-Neukölln ... (Director)
- My Wonderful West Berlin
- ACT! Wer bin ich? ... (Director)
2015
- Desire Will Set You Free as Ezra's Agent
- Tough Love ... (Director)
- Praunheim Memoires as Self
- Vater as Man in Berlin
2014
- Auf der Suche nach Heilern ... (Writer)
- How I Learned to Love the Numbers as Self
- Mario Wirz as Self
- Hitler und Jesus – eine Liebesgeschichte ... (Director)
- Laura – Das Juwel von Stuttgart ... (Director)
2013
- Pantoffelkino as Self - Guest
- I Feel Like Disco as Rosa von Praunheim
2012
- Rosakinder as Self
- I am a Poem as Self
- Rosas Welt – 70 neue Filme von Rosa von Praunheim
- Germans Taste the Best ... (Director)
- King of Comics
2011
- Mondo Lux: The Visual Worlds of Werner Schroeter as Self
- Rent Boys as Self
2010
- New York Memories ... (Director)
- 20 × Brandenburg ... (Director)
2009
- History of Hell ... (Director)
- On the Other Side of the Screen: 100 Years of Moviemento Cinema
- 24 Hours Berlin ... (Director)
2008
- Markus Lanz as Self
- Paris-Berlin, le débat as Self
- Can I Be Your Bratwurst, Please? ... (Director)
- Der Rosa Riese ... (Director)
- Dead Gay Men and Living Lesbians ... (Director)
2007
- ANNE WILL
- 0511 TV Lokal as Self
- Here’s Looking at You, Boy as Self
- Six Dead Students ... (Screenplay)
- Two Mothers
- Mit Olga auf der Wolga ... (Director)
2006
- Das perfekte Promi-Dinner as Self
2005
- Men, Heroes and Gay Nazis as Self
- Your Heart in My Head ... (Director)
- Who is Helene Schwarz? ... (Writer)
- Schwein gehabt – Joe Luga ... (Director)
- Umsonst Gelebt: Walter Schwarze ... (Director)
- Liebe und Leid – Albrecht Becker ... (Director)
2004
- Im Palais as Self
- Ein bisschen Luft unter die Flügel as Self
2003
- ZIBB as Self
- Menschen bei Maischberger as Self
- Charlotte in Sweden as Self
- Ratten 07 – Im Berliner Dschungel ... (Director)
2002
- Through the Night with... as Self
- Queens Don’t Cry ... (Screenplay)
- Pfui, Rosa! as Self
- Cows Knocked Up by Fog ... (Screenplay)
2000
- The Einstein of Sex: Life and Work of Dr. M. Hirschfeld ... (Director)
- Wonderful Wrodow ... (Director)
- Fassbinder's Women ... (Director)
1998
- Gay Courage: 100 Years of the Gay Movement ... (Director)
1997
- Tietjen und Bommes as Self
- Nachtstudio as Self
- Birth of a Nation as Self
1996
- Zimmer frei! as Self
- Transexual Menace as Self - Interviewer
- I Was a Jewish Sex Worker as Self
1995
- Die Harald Schmidt Show as Self
- Neurosia: Fifty Years of Perversity ... (Director)
1994
- Meine Oma hatte einen Nazipuff ... (Director)
1992
- I Am My Own Woman ... (Screenplay)
1991
- DAS!
- Ein Mann namens Pis ... (Director)
- Proud and Gay ... (Director)
1990
- Die Weisheit ... (Director)
- Life Is Like a Cucumber ... (Director)
- Silence = Death as Self
- Positive as Self
- Fire Under Your Ass
1989
1987
- live - die ZDF-talkshow as Self
- Dolly, Lotte and Maria as Interviewer
1986
- A Virus Knows No Morals as Rüdiger Kackinski
- September September as Self (archive footage)
1984
- The Bite
- Horror Vacui ... (Director)
1983
- City of Lost Souls ... (Writer)
- Red Love ... (Writer)
1981
- Our Corpses Are Still Alive ... (Director)
1979
- NDR Talk Show as Self
- Tally Brown, New York
- Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts ... (Editor)
- Der 24. Stock ... (Director)
- Death Magazine: or How to Be a Flowerpot ... (Camera Operator)
1978
- Bio’s Bahnhof as Self
1977
- Sigrid Gräfin von Richthofen ... (Director)
- George and Mike Kuchar as Self
1976
- Kölner Treff as Self
- Underground and Emigrants as Self
- Marianne Rosenberg ... (Director)
- I’m an Antistar ... (Director)
1975
- The Enchantment of the Blue Sailors as Matrose
- Berliner Bettwurst ... (Director)
1974
- 3 nach 9 as Self
- Axel von Auersperg ... (Director)
- Rosa von Praunheim zeigt ... (Director)
- Monolog eines Stars
1973
- Je später der Abend as Self
1972
1971
- Die Bettwurst ... (Director of Photography)
- It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives ... (Director)
- Macbeth Oper von Rosa von Praunheim ... (Director)
- Homosexuelle in New York ... (Director)
1969
- Neurasia ... (Assistant Director)
- Rosa Arbeiter auf goldener Straße – 2. Teil ... (Director)
- Beckett in Berlin ... (Director)
- Sisters of Revolution ... (Director)
1968
- Carla
- Rosa Arbeiter auf goldener Straße – 1. Teil ... (Director)
- Von Rosa von Praunheim
- (A)lter (A)ction ... (Assistant Director)
1967
- Silvo as Self
1964
- Grimme Award as Self