Traute Hoess
Traute Hoess studied acting at the Otto Falckenberg Acting School in Munich. She is a co-founder of the theater collective “Rote Rübe,” which develops its own plays in collaboration with Ton Steine Scherben. She starred in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s films “Lili Marleen” and “Berlin Alexanderplatz.” Various theater engagements took her from Freiburg, Basel, Wuppertal, Bremen, and Düsseldorf to Cologne, where she worked repeatedly with Günter Krämer and Werner Schroeter. In 1994, Peter Palitzsch and Heiner Müller brought her to the Berliner Ensemble. Traute Hoess was the original cast member playing Frau Dulfeed in “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” and continued in the role until 2000. From 1995 to 2000, she was a member of the Schauspielhaus Bochum and worked with Leander Haußmann, Jürgen Kruse, Karin Henkel, and Dimiter Gotscheff, among others. From 2001 to 2003, she held an engagement at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna; in 2003, she received the Nestroy Prize for her role as Anne Meister in “Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh” by Thomas Bernhard. In 2010, Oliver Reese brought Traute Hoess to Frankfurt, where she collaborated with René Pollesch, among others, before returning to the Berliner Ensemble in 2012. There she worked with Claus Peymann, Robert Wilson, Katharina Thalbach, Leander Haußmann, and Sven Regener, among others. With Robert Wilson’s productions (“The Threepenny Opera,” “Shakespeare Sonnets,” “Peter Pan,” and “Endgame”), she toured Europe, America, Australia, and Asia.
In addition to her theater work, Traute Hoess has appeared in various film, television, and radio productions and has collaborated with directors such as Uli Edel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Lars Montag, Andreas Kleinert, Ingo Rasper, Heinrich Breloer, Maries Pfeiffer, Lola Randl, Sophie Allet-Coche, Ulla Wagner, and Sepp Bierbichler. After Oliver Reese took over the Berliner Ensemble, she was forced into retirement by him. Most recently, she played Josefine Lehninger in Horváth’s “Italian Night” at the Schaubühne, directed by Thomas Ostermeier.
After weathering the COVID-19 pandemic, Traute Hoess felt drawn back home to Upper Bavaria; she left Berlin and has been living in Weilheim, Upper Bavaria—the place of her birth and childhood—since 2022.
Most recently, she worked with filmmakers Robert Schwenke (Helgoland 513) and Markus M. Rosenmüller (Pumuckl).
She is particularly pleased to have now joined the Munich Kammerspiele. In Maxi Schafroth’s hit comedy “Wachse oder Weiche,” she plays the landowner Frau Pöschinger.
