
Acting
Volker Prechtel
Born 1941-08-09 · Hopfen am See, Bavaria, Germany
Volker Prechtel (born August 9, 1941, in Hopfen am See; died August 7, 1997, in Gröbenzell) was a German theater, film, and television actor. Prechtel initially studied pedagogy and worked as a schoolteacher for several years before finding his way to professional acting through amateur theater stages. With his striking face and distinctive nose, he became a sought-after character actor in film and television, appearing in more than one hundred productions. Prechtel was also a regular presence on the theater stage. He performed at venues including the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Münchner Volkstheater, the Freie Volksbühne Berlin, and the Münchner Theater für Kinder. He achieved international recognition in 1986 for his role as the monk Malachias in *The Name of the Rose*, based on the novel by Umberto Eco. In that film, he acted alongside Sean Connery and Helmut Qualtinger. Additionally, he appeared as a public bus driver in the crime series *Der König*. Volker Prechtel died in 1997—two days before his 56th birthday—from complications related to cancer.
Acting credits
7.514th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.
The Name of the Rose
1986
6.6Following the suicide of an elderly Jewish man, investigative journalist Peter Miller sets out to hunt down an SS Captain and former concentration camp commander. In doing so he discovers that, despite allegations of war crimes, the former commander has become a man of importance in industry in post-war Germany, protected from prosecution by a powerful organisation of former SS members called Odessa.
The Odessa File
1974
7.3The film follows Kaspar Hauser, who lived the first seventeen years of his life chained in a tiny cellar with only a toy horse to occupy his time, devoid of all human contact except for a man who wears a black overcoat and top hat who feeds him.
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
1974
5.5The film consists of several small episodes that take place in and around Munich.
Starke Zeiten
1988
6.5A small Bavarian village is renowned for its "Ruby Glass" glass blowing works. When the foreman of the works dies suddenly without revealing the secret of the Ruby Glass, the town slides into a deep depression, and the owner of the glassworks becomes obssessed with the lost secret.
Heart of Glass
1976
5.5The immature young ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Joseph, was extremely shy around women but (according to this film) was constantly being propositioned, lewdly or otherwise, by ambitious courtesans. When he was finally married to his Empress, the teen-aged Bavarian princess Sisi (Elizabeth), it seems that his relief knew no bounds, for he was now sure that he would never have to think about sex ever again. According to the filmmakers, this is the true history of that marriage. This story is a complete reversal of the romantic legend depicted in the popular 1955 film Sissi, which helped brighten the emerging stardom of Romy Schneider.
Sisi/Last Minute
1991
7.0Financier persuades his mistress to marry a rich industrialist for his money, then discovers that he and the new wife are to be murdered by her new husband.
Crime and Passion
1976
10.0The naive 18 year old Dobrila leaves her little Serbian village to travel to Hamburg, Germany, where her boyfriend lives. The trip is not easy. Finally in Hamburg she has to realize her boyfriend is not very interested in a relationship. She doesn't tell him she's pregnant and starts on her way home to Serbia, which turns out to be even more exhausting.
The Serbian Girl
1991
4.0After trying to smuggle a package into prison for his father Willi, Harry and his girlfriend Marlies also end up in jail. While Harry is billeted with Daddy, Marlies is housed just one floor up in the cell of the ageing prostitute Jutta. With Christmas just around the corner, the four of them join forces and plan to break through to their cells to celebrate a lavish party with a can of homemade schnapps.
Alles nur Tarnung
1996
6.7A German Marquise has to deal with a pregnancy she cannot explain and an infatuated Russian Count.
The Marquise of O
1976
2.0An oral history of the 1986 film adaptation of "The Name of the Rose", gathering together the memories of several members of the surviving cast/crew.
An Oral History of: The Name of the Rose
2022
6.6Having fathered an illegitimate child with his lover, Marie, feckless soldier Franz Woyzeck takes odd jobs around his small town to provide some extra money for them. One job is volunteering for experiments conducted by a local doctor, who puts Woyzeck on a diet of peas. This serves to drive him close to madness, and the discovery that Marie is involved in an affair with the local drum major exacerbates the situation. Pushed too far, Woyzeck resorts to violence.
Woyzeck
1979
5.4Tommy and Mike operate a famous pirate radio station, Germany's most listened-to radio station. The police and the operators of the Bavarian Broadcast Company try to stop their illegal broadcast.
Piratensender Powerplay
1982
6.3A meeting of two world famous climbers, one an experienced mountaineer the other a sport climber, and a journalist (Ivan) results in a bet on which of the two is the best climber. Roger (the mountaineering expert) states that Martin (the sport climber) wouldn't survive a day on a 'real' climbing expedition, although he is considered to be the world's best sport climber (having just won an indoor 'world championship,' an event depicted in the opening scene). They plan to climb 'Cerro Torre,' in the Patagonia region of South America, near the Argentinian/Chilean border, one of the world's most difficult mountains, especially considering the extreme weather conditions common to the area.
Scream of Stone
1991
No synopsis available yet.
Das Geheimnis
1994
6.3For many years the old Waller worked as a railwayman. After Waller is informed that "his" track will be closed down and that he will be retired, he walks the route for one last time and starts to remember his life along the way: Beginning in his childhood in the 1920s, he commemorates the death of his great love as well as he recalls the legal battle with his illegitimate daughter.
Waller's Last Trip
1989
6.1Down-on-his-luck private detective Harry Werner just wants a quiet life, but trouble always finds him. When he stumbles into a case involving a missing woman, shady criminals, and a suitcase full of secrets, Harry realises he's in way over his head. A mix of comedy, noir, and chaos, this quirky caper proves that bad luck is Harry’s only constant companion.
Oh Dear Harry!
1981
A German TV documentary that chronicles the daily rehearsals, the filming and all the behind the scenes of Jean-Jacques Annaud's classic "The Name of the Rose". From actors perspectives to the ideas used by the director to produce an impeccable international epic adaptation of Umberto Eco's best selling novel, the film presents the obstacles behind the creation of a production of such large scale and also the making of the many difficult scenes, most of the ones presented here are the characters' murders inside the mysterious abbey.
The Abbey of Crime: Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose'
1986
6.5Super agents from East and West have 24 hours to foil an assassination attempt on Brezhnev. Together they hunt the terrorist No. 1. The race against the clock shows eerily realistic the practices of the secret services.
Natascha - Todesgrüsse aus Moskau
1977
4.8No synopsis available yet.
Es begann bei Tiffany
1979
No synopsis available yet.
Die Fernsehsaga – Eine steirische Fernsehgeschichte
1995
5.2A tramp tries to trick the community into paying for the funeral of his fellow tramp who was found frozen to death.
The Frozen Heart
1979
9.0Fred is a journalist who investigates the death of a man in room 36. He interviews the man's widow and her deranged mother for clues as to how the man died in a hotel room that is rented by the hour. Also under suspicion is a stranger named Becker who lives next to the room where the killing took place.
Zimmer 36
1988
4.0Bernhard "Big Mäc" Maurer, an ex-motorcycle freak and bored piano teacher, is voted the "perfect motorcyclist" by the trade magazine Motorrad after quitting his job as a music teacher at a Munich high school. He is promised a bonus of $50,000 if he manages to beat a Japanese team in an adventure rally from the Zugspitze to Kilimanjaro. Maurer agrees and chooses as his second man, the technician, his young neighbor Max. Max, for whom an apprenticeship is at stake, injures himself shortly before the start of the rally and has to sit out. Without Maurer's knowledge, Max's almost identical-looking sister Maxi takes over the role of the boy.
Big Mäc
1985