- Born
- Birth nameHans Wilhelm Geißendörfer
- Director. Writer. Producer. Has studied germanistics, theatre, psychology and african languages between 1962 and 1967. Has travelled Africa and Asia. In 1971 co-founder of the german Filmverlag der Autoren. 1983 he founded his own production company. Geissendoerfer is producer and partly director of the first real German soap opera Lindenstraße (1985), which nowadays (1995) has had more than 500 episodes on air since December 1984.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Oliver Heidelbach
- He grew up in Neustadt, Franconia. His father was a military chaplain and never returned from the war. After graduating from high school, Geißendörfer began studying several humanities and social science subjects in 1962 in Erlangen and Marburg, but also in Vienna and Zurich. In 1967, however, he dropped out of his studies without graduating. During his studies, Geißendörfer was already involved in student theaters. He also discovered film as his real passion. He undertook extensive travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, during which he made his first documentaries and underground films.
In 1966, Geißendörfer made his debut with the TV broadcast of "Lächle, Seki", a documentary about the living situation of the Kurdish population in Iraq. In addition to documentaries, Geißendörfer increasingly also turned literary models into films, which made him known as an auteur filmmaker. His first feature films were "Anna Kahn" (1967) and "Eins & Eins" (1968). Geißendörfer became known to a larger audience through the feature film "Lena Christ" (1968). The following year he received, among other things, the Federal Film Prize for "Jonathan". In 1975 his TV series "Lobster" was broadcast.
Geißendörfer received an Oscar nomination for his literary film adaptation "The Glass Cell" (1977), which was based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith. However, the filmmaker also received criticism. His film adaptation of Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" (1981) received a rather distant appreciation in the German feature sections, although Geißendörfer received the silver film ribbon for it. Geißendörfer developed the weekly series "Lindenstrasse" for ARD, which has been broadcast since December 5, 1985 and made the director known to a wider TV audience. As recently as 1998, the long-running series had around 6 million viewers.
The series is produced by Geißendörfer Film- und Fernsehenproduktion GmbH (GFF), which was also founded in 1985 and now has more than 1,000 episodes. With the unique concept of the television series, Geißendörfer created his own genre that stands out from the comedic or fictional character of the American models. "Lindenstrasse" serves German television viewers with weekly news highlights of current political events in their living rooms. By portraying average people, some of whom are interpreted by amateur actors, she can claim the highest level of authenticity.
Even if averageness and authenticity shaped the character of "Lindenstraße", Geißendörfer did not shy away from addressing social injustices and taboos as well as the problems of so-called marginal groups. In addition to the artistic direction and content conception of "Lindenstraße", the director also found the mental and creative space for further film work. These include the Dürrenmatt film adaptation "Justice," which was nominated for an Oscar in 1994. Geißendörfer has been awarded numerous other film awards. In 2002 he received the Adolf Grimme Gold Prize.
On January 30, 2005, ARD broadcast the 1,000th. Episode of "Lindenstrasse". For the anniversary episode, it was announced that the director had extended his contract with the first public television station. In 2008 and 2009 he produced the films "Soliloquy" and "In the World You Are Afraid".
In his private life, Geißendörfer has been married since 1978 and is the father of three daughters.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth
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