Hans-Jürgen Syberberg

Directing

Hans-Jürgen Syberberg

Born

1935-12-08 (90)

Place of birth

Nossendorf, Germany

Known for

Directing

Credits

53 titles

Hans-Jürgen Syberberg (born 8 December 1935) is a German film director and intellectual. For Syberberg, cinema is a form of Gesamtkunstwerk. Many commentators, including Syberberg himself, have characterized his work as a cinematic combination of Bertolt Brecht's doctrine of epic theatre and Richard Wagner's operatic aesthetics. Syberberg is best known for his 'German trilogy', consisting of Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King (1972), Karl May (1974), and Hitler: A Film from Germany (1977), the latter of which receives rare theatrical screenings due to its seven-hour runtime.

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 2 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Hitler: A Film from Germany poster
7.2

A structure-free, four-part examination of the rise and fall of the Third Reich. Each part explores a different topic, from Hitler's cult of personality in propaganda to how said propaganda was associated with pre-Nazi German cultural, spiritual, and national heritage to the Holocaust and the ideology behind it, particularly from Himmler's point of view.

Hitler: A Film from Germany

1978

Hitler: A Film from Germany poster
7.2

A structure-free, four-part examination of the rise and fall of the Third Reich. Each part explores a different topic, from Hitler's cult of personality in propaganda to how said propaganda was associated with pre-Nazi German cultural, spiritual, and national heritage to the Holocaust and the ideology behind it, particularly from Himmler's point of view.

Hitler: A Film from Germany

1978

Parsifal poster
6.7

A psychological interpretation of the opera mixing in references to the history of Germany, Wagner’s life, German literature and philosophy. The action is centered on Wagner’s death mask. Kundry is the main character – one might read the film as the story of her redemption rather than that of Amfortas.

Parsifal

1982

Karl May poster
6.5

This ethereal, three-hour biopic starring Helmut Käutner as the writer Karl May interprets «a German hero's life» and thereby paints a picture of an entire era.

Karl May

1974

Karl May poster
6.5

This ethereal, three-hour biopic starring Helmut Käutner as the writer Karl May interprets «a German hero's life» and thereby paints a picture of an entire era.

Karl May

1974

Romy: Anatomy of a Face poster
6.8

Documentary about young actress Romy Schneider, capturing just the right moment between her first career as a young actress in mainstream "Unterhaltungskino" ("entertainment cinema") and her second one as acknowledged European arthouse actress.

Romy: Anatomy of a Face

1967

Romy: Anatomy of a Face poster
6.8

Documentary about young actress Romy Schneider, capturing just the right moment between her first career as a young actress in mainstream "Unterhaltungskino" ("entertainment cinema") and her second one as acknowledged European arthouse actress.

Romy: Anatomy of a Face

1967

Ludwig – Requiem for a Virgin King poster
5.5

Reflected in an artificial and bombastically staged illusory world with Wagnerian compositions, glossy and satirical time references, 19th century German figures and traditions are stripped of their mythology and interpreted by the Germany of 1972.

Ludwig – Requiem for a Virgin King

1972

Ludwig – Requiem for a Virgin King poster
5.5

Reflected in an artificial and bombastically staged illusory world with Wagnerian compositions, glossy and satirical time references, 19th century German figures and traditions are stripped of their mythology and interpreted by the Germany of 1972.

Ludwig – Requiem for a Virgin King

1972

Ludwig – Requiem for a Virgin King poster
5.5

Reflected in an artificial and bombastically staged illusory world with Wagnerian compositions, glossy and satirical time references, 19th century German figures and traditions are stripped of their mythology and interpreted by the Germany of 1972.

Ludwig – Requiem for a Virgin King

1972

Fräulein Else poster
8.0

TV adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s eponymous book with Edith Clever as the only film actress.

Fräulein Else

1987

Fünfter Akt, siebente Szene. Fritz Kortner probt Kabale und Liebe poster
10.0

This documentation of a Kortner stage rehearsal shows in detail and fascinatingly how Kortner developed psychological tensions with meticulous precision in linguistic expression and gestural construction.

Fünfter Akt, siebente Szene. Fritz Kortner probt Kabale und Liebe

1965

Fünfter Akt, siebente Szene. Fritz Kortner probt Kabale und Liebe poster
10.0

This documentation of a Kortner stage rehearsal shows in detail and fascinatingly how Kortner developed psychological tensions with meticulous precision in linguistic expression and gestural construction.

Fünfter Akt, siebente Szene. Fritz Kortner probt Kabale und Liebe

1965

The Night poster
8.3

An installation film that consists of a six-hour-long monologue performed by Edith Clever, who reads texts by Syberberg and many different authors, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich von Kleist, Plato, Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eduard Mörike, Richard Wagner, William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, and Chief Seattle.

The Night

1985

Sex-Business: Made in Pasing poster
5.2

Documentary film about the successful erotic film producer and author Alois Brummer. Documentary filmmaker Hans Jürgen Syberberg accompanies Brummer for six days in his daily business during the shooting of Brummer's film “Graf Porno und die liebesdurstigen Töchter” (Count Porno and the Love-Thirsty Daughters). In addition to Brummer, his employees and actors also have their say.

Sex-Business: Made in Pasing

1970

Sex-Business: Made in Pasing poster
5.2

Documentary film about the successful erotic film producer and author Alois Brummer. Documentary filmmaker Hans Jürgen Syberberg accompanies Brummer for six days in his daily business during the shooting of Brummer's film “Graf Porno und die liebesdurstigen Töchter” (Count Porno and the Love-Thirsty Daughters). In addition to Brummer, his employees and actors also have their say.

Sex-Business: Made in Pasing

1970

Sex-Business: Made in Pasing poster
5.2

Documentary film about the successful erotic film producer and author Alois Brummer. Documentary filmmaker Hans Jürgen Syberberg accompanies Brummer for six days in his daily business during the shooting of Brummer's film “Graf Porno und die liebesdurstigen Töchter” (Count Porno and the Love-Thirsty Daughters). In addition to Brummer, his employees and actors also have their say.

Sex-Business: Made in Pasing

1970

Scarabea – How Much Land Does a Man Need? poster
6.7

A Teutonic lecher on vacation has a wager with some local peasants that he can't make a walking circle from sunrise to sunset to secure some coveted land. The middle-aged businessman embarks on his journey only to be slowed down by the beautiful reporter Scarabea. With thoughts of drunkenness and sex on his warped mind, the man tries to circumnavigate the parcel of property. The story is a retelling of an ancient folk tale told by Tolstoy where the initial victim bets his soul to Satan against the land he desires.

Scarabea – How Much Land Does a Man Need?

1969

Scarabea – How Much Land Does a Man Need? poster
6.7

A Teutonic lecher on vacation has a wager with some local peasants that he can't make a walking circle from sunrise to sunset to secure some coveted land. The middle-aged businessman embarks on his journey only to be slowed down by the beautiful reporter Scarabea. With thoughts of drunkenness and sex on his warped mind, the man tries to circumnavigate the parcel of property. The story is a retelling of an ancient folk tale told by Tolstoy where the initial victim bets his soul to Satan against the land he desires.

Scarabea – How Much Land Does a Man Need?

1969

Scarabea – How Much Land Does a Man Need? poster
6.7

A Teutonic lecher on vacation has a wager with some local peasants that he can't make a walking circle from sunrise to sunset to secure some coveted land. The middle-aged businessman embarks on his journey only to be slowed down by the beautiful reporter Scarabea. With thoughts of drunkenness and sex on his warped mind, the man tries to circumnavigate the parcel of property. The story is a retelling of an ancient folk tale told by Tolstoy where the initial victim bets his soul to Satan against the land he desires.

Scarabea – How Much Land Does a Man Need?

1969

Brecht Urfaust poster
NR

Documentary images of scenes filmed at the Berliner Ensemble, during one of the final rehearsals.

Brecht Urfaust

1953

Edith Clever liest Joyce poster
8.0

In her Berlin apartment, where the S-Bahn and long-distance trains pass by, the actress Edith Clever reads Molly Bloom’s monologue from James Joyce’s “Ulysses”.

Edith Clever liest Joyce

1987

Nightsong poster
NR

Behind the pulpit of the Gothic church, speakers take turns. A thousand names are written on the rustling pages: that’s how many people committed suicide in the town of Demmin in the spring of 1945. For decades, their fate was a taboo subject in Germany. Eighty years after the end of the war, the film classic Hans-Jürgen Sieberberg voices their names and, with the help of Mozart and Brahms, performs a requiem for them, creating a space of remembrance and cross-border cultural solidarity.

Nightsong

2025

Der Gang auf den Berg poster
NR

An ascent to the mountain in Tyrol with the music of Mozart.

Der Gang auf den Berg

1997

No artwork available
9.0

The film features footage of three productions by the Berliner Ensemble from 1953: excerpts from performances of Puntila and Mutter, as well as a fairly detailed recording of the dress rehearsal for Urfaust. The production of “Urfaust,” created in collaboration with Egon Monk, had aroused the displeasure of SED cultural officials. Syberberg and Germanist Prof. Dr. Hans Mayer discuss the controversy.

Nach meinem letzten Umzug...

1972

A Dream, What Else? poster
8.0

A requiem for the now-defunct German state of Prussia.

A Dream, What Else?

1995

San Domingo poster
6.2

This surrealistic experimental film finds the son of a young nobleman staying with hash-smoking hippies in a seamy section of Munich. He falls for a hippie girl who is involved in shaking down the young man's parents for money. She falls in love with the young man but the group continues to extract money from the parents in return for their wayward son. When he discovers the shakedown, his rage leads to tragedy for the star-crossed lovers.

San Domingo

1970

Die Grafen Pocci - einige Kapitel zur Geschichte einer Familie poster
7.0

The noble family of the Poccis owns the Ammerland castle on Lake Starnberg. The current lord of the castle leads a secluded, small life as a farmer, Unimog driver, horse lover, drummer and soccer player.

Die Grafen Pocci - einige Kapitel zur Geschichte einer Familie

1968

Theodor Hierneis oder Wie man ehem. Hofkoch wird poster
8.0

The film consists of a monologue performed by Walter Sedlmayr, who plays Theodor Hierneis, the chef at the court of Ludwig II of Bavaria. The screenplay was written by Syberberg and Sedlmayr and is based on the memoirs of Hierneis.

Theodor Hierneis oder Wie man ehem. Hofkoch wird

1973

Theodor Hierneis oder Wie man ehem. Hofkoch wird poster
8.0

The film consists of a monologue performed by Walter Sedlmayr, who plays Theodor Hierneis, the chef at the court of Ludwig II of Bavaria. The screenplay was written by Syberberg and Sedlmayr and is based on the memoirs of Hierneis.

Theodor Hierneis oder Wie man ehem. Hofkoch wird

1973

Theodor Hierneis oder Wie man ehem. Hofkoch wird poster
8.0

The film consists of a monologue performed by Walter Sedlmayr, who plays Theodor Hierneis, the chef at the court of Ludwig II of Bavaria. The screenplay was written by Syberberg and Sedlmayr and is based on the memoirs of Hierneis.

Theodor Hierneis oder Wie man ehem. Hofkoch wird

1973

Fritz Kortner spricht Monologe für eine Schallplatte poster
7.0

Fritz Kortner performs a monologue.

Fritz Kortner spricht Monologe für eine Schallplatte

1966

The Confessions of Winifred Wagner poster
6.2

Winifred, the geriatric daughter-in-law of the famed composer Richard Wagner, talks about her cultural and political influence during the Third Reich. Yet in contradiction to the films's title, Winifred confesses nothing. The contradictions within her discourse do, however, reveal the extent of her delusions and political commitment as an unrepentant fascist. She paradoxically describes herself as a completely apolitical being, adamant that her classification as a grade three Nazi at the end of the war was a grave injustice. Still Winifred cannot contain her amusement when she recalls that after the collapse of the Third Reich, she was the only person left in Germany who would admit that she was a Nazi.

The Confessions of Winifred Wagner

1978

No artwork available
8.0

Edith Clever recites the complete text of The Marquise of O. by Heinrich von Kleist.

The Marquise of O.

1989

Nietzsche: Ecce Homo poster
NR

This Ecce Homo is an impressive statement of life beyond the death of an artist "of the descent of Dionysus".

Nietzsche: Ecce Homo

2003

Mozart Requiem mit dem Finger gelesen poster
NR

'Mozart Requiem mit dem Finger gelesen' belongs to a group of 31 films which were made for the room 'Cave of memory' at Documenta X (1997).

Mozart Requiem mit dem Finger gelesen

1997

Penthesilea poster
NR

In Heinrich von Kleist's "Penthesilea", war, the death of love and erotic cannibalism merge into a battle of the sexes. The drama, which was published in 1808, was not premiered until 70 years later. It is considered almost unplayable. Edith Clever and Hans Jürgen Syberberg have remembered that Kleist's "Penthesilea" was already read as a monologue in the time of its author and supplemented by pantomime on stage. In November 1987, they continued this tradition at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris: Edith Clever performed the play without lines and role changes, as a single long poem.

Penthesilea

1989

Demmin Cantos poster
NR

Hans Jürgen Syberberg grew up in the town of Demmin, the subject of his current film. The history of the town, in which a mass suicide with hundreds of deaths took place at the end of the Second World War, plays an important role. In his film, Syberberg documents his attempts, initiated decades ago, to re-establish Demmin's central market square as a place of community. A café was revived where people could watch films, drink coffee and sing together. Two architectural firms even presented concrete plans for a redesign of the square. Syberberg's commitment is not intended to restore "old conditions", but to give a place and a community back its lost center.

Demmin Cantos

2023

Demmin Cantos poster
NR

Hans Jürgen Syberberg grew up in the town of Demmin, the subject of his current film. The history of the town, in which a mass suicide with hundreds of deaths took place at the end of the Second World War, plays an important role. In his film, Syberberg documents his attempts, initiated decades ago, to re-establish Demmin's central market square as a place of community. A café was revived where people could watch films, drink coffee and sing together. Two architectural firms even presented concrete plans for a redesign of the square. Syberberg's commitment is not intended to restore "old conditions", but to give a place and a community back its lost center.

Demmin Cantos

2023

No artwork available
7.0

A short film by Hans-Jürgen Syberberg.

Wilhelm von Kobell

1966