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Wolf-Dietrich Sprenger

Actor
Wolf-Dietrich Sprenger, born on October 11, 1942, in Zeitz, is a German actor, director, and author. He began his theater career in Flensburg and later worked at renowned theaters such as the Deutsches Schauspielhaus and the Thalia Theater in Hamburg. Since the 1980s, he has also worked as a freelance actor, director, and author, writing children's plays and directing productions such as Die Räuber (The Robbers) and Endstation Sehnsucht (A Streetcar Named Desire). One of his most famous film appearances is in the animated cartoon HERZOG ERNST (1993, directed by Lutz Dammbeck), in which he provides the voice of the narrator. Other important film roles over the years have been in German television films, including Winckelmanns Reisen (1990, directed by Jan Schütte), Und Jimmy ging zum Regenbogen (2008, directed by Carlo Rola), and Das Mädchen mit den goldenen Händen (2021, directed by Katharina Marie Schubert). On television, Sprenger has appeared primarily in series such as Tatort, Unser Lehrer Doktor Specht, Großstadtrevier, SOKO Köln, Der Zürich-Krimi, and Bettys Diagnose. He often took on striking supporting roles, such as in Sperling und sein Spiel gegen alle (1997, directed by Torsten C. Fischer), where he appeared as Norbert Lindner, and in the miniseries Drinnen – Im Internet sind alle gleich (2020). Wolf-Dietrich Sprenger has made a name for himself through his many years of involvement in German-language theater, film, and television. His participation in HERZOG ERNST is a unique contribution to German cinema that underscores his diverse artistic profile.

Films

Duke Ernest

Duke Ernest

By Lutz Dammbeck

1993 | 43 min | Animation

The great adventure of little Duke Ernst – a powerful examination of power, exile and cultural alienation.

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The Netz: SEEK II

The Netz: SEEK II

2009 | 29 min | Icons & Media Art

While doing research for his film THE NET, Lutz Dammbeck came across the groundbreaking exhibition “Software – Information Technology: Its New Meaning for Art”, which took place at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1970. Curated by Jack Burnham, this exhibition presented the symbiosis of conceptual and media art with what were then new technologies developed for the American military. One of the central exhibits was the installation Seek by the Architecture Machine Group of the Massachusetts Institute ...

Angry Spirits

Angry Spirits

2024 | 90 min | Documentary

ANGRY SPIRITS follows Ainur, a young Mongolian erotic dancer in Ulaanbaatar, as nightmares and a growing sense of illness leave her feeling lonely and uprooted. She believes evil spirits may be taking hold of her, and the film opens on her search for relief and direction. Guided by shamans, Ainur travels back toward her family's land in northern Mongolia and the Gobi Desert, hoping to reconnect with her roots, her ancestors, and the spirits of nature. The journey is both physical and emotional, ...

GDR Experimental: First Leipzig Autumn Salon

GDR Experimental: First Leipzig Autumn Salon

2006 | 22 min | Icons & Media Art

In 1984, the artists Lutz Dammbeck, Günter Firit, Hans Hendrik Grimmling, Frieder Heinze, Günter Huniat and Olaf Wegewitz occupied a trade fair building in the center of Leipzig to stage one of the first independent and public exhibitions in the GDR – the 1st LEIPZIGER HERBSTSALON. The event was an act of resistance against the GDR's system of state control and a creative form of self-assertion. The artists defied the restrictive guidelines of cultural policy and created an autonomous space for avant-garde, ...

GDR Experimental: Homage to La Sarraz

GDR Experimental: Homage to La Sarraz

1981 | 12 min | Icons & Media Art

In September 1929, a group of visionary filmmakers gathered at La Sarraz Castle in Switzerland to discuss alternatives to commercial cinema. The participants, including Sergei Eisenstein, Hans Richter, Walter Ruttmann and Luis Buñuel, want to explore new ways of independent filmmaking and challenge the bourgeois narrative film. Lutz Dammbeck takes up this historic meeting and pays artistic tribute to it with DDR-EXPERIMENTAL: HOMMAGE À LA SARRAZ. The film combines documentary elements with experimental ...

The Cave of Hercules

The Cave of Hercules

1990 | 44 min | Icons & Media Art

For centuries, the mythical figure of Heracles has been a symbol of immense strength, divine mission and the challenges of human existence. His twelve heroic deeds are world-famous – including the slaying of the Nemean Lion, the slaying of the Lernaean Hydra and the cleansing of the Augean stables. But beyond the heroic saga, his image remains fragmentary, changeable and elusive. HERAKLES CAVE sets out on a quest to find the ancient hero and his legacy in the modern world. Director Lutz Dammbeck ...

Master Game

Master Game

1998 | 106 min | Documentary

In the 1990s, the art world is shaken by a series of mysterious attacks. At first, paintings in renowned galleries were targeted, and later, bombs were set off by the pro-German movement in Austria. In 1994, the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts finally became a crime scene: unknown perpetrators painted over several works by the famous Austrian painter Arnulf Rainer with black paint – a targeted attack on the “Über-Maler” himself? In MASTER GAME, Lutz Dammbeck links these events with the controversial ...

And Along Come Tourists

And Along Come Tourists

2007 | 85 min | Drama

AND ALONG COME TOURISTS by Robert Thalheim deals with the complex issues of coming to terms with the past and human interaction. The film follows the young German Sven, played by Alexander Fehling, who is doing community service at the Auschwitz memorial site, and is confronted with both his own history and the historical burden of the place. Sven's relationship with concentration camp survivor Stanisław Krzemiński, played by Ryszard Ronczewski, forms the emotional center of the film. Their initially ...

Red Ears

Red Ears

2022 | 30 min | Animation

Armed with photos from back then, Paul travels to visit a Senegalese friend and takes her on a trip down memory lane with animations and old videos. Paul Drey documents experiences, illusions, and traumas he encountered as a 19-year-old in the city of Thiès in Senegal. As part of his year of community service, he flew to Senegal with a German NGO in 2010, where he worked in the surgery department of a hospital. Poverty, corruption, and a difficult everyday life turned his hopes for meaningful development ...

The Net

The Net

2003 | 121 min | Documentary

Between 1978 and 1995, a series of bombings convulse the United States. The targets of the letter and pipe bombs are managers of major airlines, scientists from various elite universities and technology companies. The trail of attacks finally leads to Ted Kaczynski, a brilliant but reclusive former math professor who, under the pseudonym Unabomber, formulates a radical critique of technological development. Why does a scientist become a terrorist? The search for an answer leads into the past: from ...

Duerer’s Heirs

Duerer’s Heirs

1996 | 58 min | Documentary

"It cannot be said more coarsely and more precisely: in the GDR, German painting is more German…" was the opinion of the writer Günter Grass at the beginning of the 1980s. The fall of the Wall in 1989 made it possible to take a closer look at this ‘German’ painting of the faded GDR. At the centre of the film is a group picture. The picture was taken in the early 1960s in Leipzig, a field of experimentation and testing for a 'new German realism' under socialist conditions. What connects the founders ...