Monika Hansen

Monika Hansen
Born(1942-04-09)9 April 1942
Germany
Died26 June 2025(2025-06-26) (aged 83)
Berlin, Germany
OccupationActress
Spouse(s)Otto Sander
Rolf Becker

Monika Hansen (9 April 1942 – 26 June 2025) was a German theatre and film actress.

Life and career

Hansen, daughter of the comedian Claire Schlichting, was married to the actor Rolf Becker until 1971. The marriage produced two children, Ben Becker and Meret Becker, both also actors. After the divorce, Hansen married the actor Otto Sander, with whom she remained married until his death in 2013. Hansen's older brother Jonny Buchardt was also an actor.[citation needed]

She received her acting training from 1959 to 1962 at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich. After her first permanent engagement at the Theater Ulm, she then worked for ten years at the Theater Bremen under the directorship of Kurt Hübner, whom she followed to the Freie Volksbühne Berlin in 1973. Further stops in her career included the Schillertheater (Berlin) and the Schaubühne in Berlin. There she worked with Luc Bondy, Klaus Michael Grüber, and Frank-Patrick Steckel, among others. The latter brought her to the Schauspielhaus Bochum for Einar Schleef's Die Schauspieler. She also performed at the Renaissance Theater Berlin and the Staatstheater Kassel.

Hansen's film work includes around 40 film and television productions between 1971 and 2022. She worked with several directors of the New German Cinema such as Margarethe von Trotta (on The Promise), Wim Wenders (on Faraway, So Close!) and Bernhard Sinkel (on Put on Ice). In the film The Einstein of Sex (1999) by Rosa von Praunheim, she played together with her children Meret and Ben Becker and her husband Otto Sander. She made several films with the director Lars Kraume. In 2005, she appeared in the children's film A Christmoose Carol [de] alongside Mario Adorf. On television, Hansen appeared in well-known series such as Polizeiruf 110 (three times in total), Tatort, KDD – Kriminaldauerdienst (KDD – Berlin Crime Squad), and Neues aus Uhlenbusch (News from Uhlenbusch).[citation needed]

Hansen last lived in Berlin. She died on 26 June 2025, at the age of 83.

Filmography

Radio plays

Audiobooks

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Müller, Monika; Schnegg, Matthias (2016-08-15). Unwiederbringlich. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 978-3-525-40267-2.
  2. ↑ "Monika Hansen" (in German). Renaissance Theater. October 2000. Archived from the original on 2014-10-09. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  3. ↑ "Monika Hansen". Management Ramona Mohren (in German). Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  4. ↑ "Actress Monika Hansen died". bz-berlin.de (in German). 2025-07-01.
  5. ↑ "Actress Monika Hansen is dead". spiegel.de. 2025-07-01.
  6. ↑ "Meret - Seven Deaths of a Bird". Retrieved 2025-07-02.