Hanna Schygulla

Hanna Schygulla is a German actress and chanson singer. Long associated with the theater and film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, for whom Schygulla first worked in 1965, she is generally considered the most prominent German actress of the New German Cinema.

Schygulla was born in Knigshtte to German parents Antonie and Joseph Schygulla. Both the names Schygulla and Mzyk are of PolishSilesian origin, indicating a mixed heritage as was very common in Silesia. Her father, a timber merchant by profession, was then drafted as an infantryman in the German Army and was captured by American forces in Italy, subsequently being held as a prisoner of war until 1948. In 1945 Schygulla and her mother arrived as refugees in Munich following the expulsion of the majority Germanspeaking population of Knigshtte by Communist Poland. Much later, in the 1960s, Schygulla studied Romance languages and German studies, while taking acting lessons in Munich during her spare time.

Source: Wikipedia