Otto Sander

---

title: "Otto Sander" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1941-births", "2013-deaths", "male-actors-from-hanover", "german-male-film-actors", "german-male-stage-actors", "german-male-television-actors", "german-male-voice-actors", "20th-century-german-male-actors", "21st-century-german-male-actors"] description: "German actor (1941–2013)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Sander" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary German actor (1941–2013) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
image	Otto Sander Berlinale 2008.jpg
caption	Sander in 2008 at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival
name	Otto Sander
birth_date
birth_place	Hanover, Germany
death_date
death_place	Berlin, Germany
occupation	Actor
yearsactive	1964–2013
relatives	Chris Sander (brother)
::

| image = Otto Sander Berlinale 2008.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Sander in 2008 at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival | name = Otto Sander | birth_date = | birth_place = Hanover, Germany | death_date = | death_place = Berlin, Germany | othername = | occupation = Actor | yearsactive = 1964–2013 | relatives = Chris Sander (brother)

Otto Sander (; 30 June 1941 – 12 September 2013) was a German film, theater, and voice actor.

Life

Education and early career

Sander grew up in Kassel, where he graduated in 1961 from the Friedrichgymnasium. After leaving school, he spent his military service in 1961/62 with the Bundesmarine and left as reserve fenrik. Sander then studied theatre science, history of art and philosophy. In 1965, he made his acting debut at the Düsseldorfer chamber plays. After his first film work in the same year, he abandoned his studies in 1967 and went to Munich to become a full-time actor.

Theatre

His career is closely connected with the Schaubühne theatre in Berlin under the direction of Peter Stein. From 1980 onwards, Sander appeared on several of Berlin's theatre stages, among others at the Schillertheater in 1981, at the Freie Volksbühne in 1985 and in 1989 at the Komödie am Kurfürstendamm. More recently, he starred in Hauptmann von Köpenick at the Schauspielhaus Bochum (2004).

Film

Among his best-known film roles are the angel Cassiel in Wings of Desire and its sequel Faraway, So Close! by Wim Wenders, and a shell-shocked U-boat commander, Kapitänleutnant Philipp Thomsen, in Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot. Sander also appeared in The Tin Drum (1979) as a trumpeter and in Comedian Harmonists, a biopic about the musical group of the same name. He also played a professor in the movie The Promise about the division of Berlin by the wall. In 1999, he played a role in Rosa von Praunheim's movie The Einstein of Sex.

In 1990, he was a member of the Jury at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival.

Voice acting

Because of his warm, strong voice, which earned him the sobriquet "The Voice" (the English term is used), he has been used frequently as narrator for television documentaries, and numerous talking books in the 1990s.

Personal life and death

He was married to the actress Monika Hansen and was stepfather to the actors Ben Becker and Meret Becker. He had two brothers, the lawyer Adolf Sander, the scientist Chris Sander, and a sister, the book dealer Marianne Sander.

Sander died, aged 72, in Berlin on 12 September 2013. No cause of death was given, though he had been diagnosed with cancer several years before his death.

Filmography

As actor

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1970	Don't Fumble, Darling	Revoluzzer Otto
1974	One or the Other of Us	Rulle
1975	Lehmanns Erzählungen	Lehmann	TV film
Meine Sorgen möcht' ich haben	Harald Bornemann
1976	**	Pjotr Suslov
The Marquise of O	Der Bruder, Der Forstmeister
Vier gegen die Bank	Eberhard Winter	TV film
1979	The Tin Drum	Musiker Meyn
1980	Palermo or Wolfsburg	Prosecutor
The Cause of the Crime	Anton Seiler	TV film
1981	**	Kowalski
Das Boot	Phillip Thomsen
The Man in Pyjamas	Rudi
In the Land of Cockaigne	Kaflisch	TV film
1982	**	Number Seven
1984	Der Mord mit der Schere	Inspector Spalt	Short
1986	Rosa Luxemburg	Karl Liebknecht
Miko: From the Gutter to the Stars	Kreditberater Grop
Wahnfried	Richard Wagner
Boundaries of Time: Caspar David Friedrich	Gerichtsgehilfe
1987	Wings of Desire	Cassiel
1988	**	Otto Spalt
1989	**	Lubowitz
1990	Time of Vengeance	Robert
Vorwärts	Backward Pedestrian	Short
1991	Amaurose	Amaurose
1992	Lyrische Suite. Das untergehende Vaterland
1993	**	Inges Vater
Faraway, So Close!	Cassiel
**	Salzmann
1994	Hölderlin-Comics	Friedrich Hölderlin - Elder
Movie Days	Maður á hesti
Three Sisters	Vershinin
The Promise	Professor Lorenz
1996	Killer Condom	Mr. Higgins
Conversation with the Beast	Hitler double
Truck Stop		Short
1997	Comedian Harmonists	Bruno Levy
1998	Der Traum von der Freiheit	Anton Melbye
Am I Beautiful?	David
1999	**	Father Lano	TV film
**	Baldur Meixner
Der Einstein des Sex	Prof. Steinach
2000	Marlene	Bühnenmanager
Les Misérables	Monseigneur Bienvenu	TV miniseries
2001	Sass	Vater Sass
2002	**	Bernd Kortens	TV film
2003	Donau, Duna, Dunaj, Dunav, Dunarea	Franz
2007	Der kleine König Macius – Der Film	Erasmus	Voice
**	Helmut
2010	Life Is Too Long	Guest
2012	Die Schuld der Erben	Leonhard Asmussen	TV film
**	Eckehardt Tiedgen
::

As Narrator

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Notes
1983	A Love in Germany
1990	Werner – Beinhart!
1993	The Olympic Summer
2001	**
2003	Werner – Gekotzt wird später!
2006	Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
2008	Krabat
::

References

References

1. "Berlinale: 1990 Juries". berlinale.de.
2. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24069872 Otto Sander, Wings of Desire actor dies at 72], BBC, 12 September 2013

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::