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Camilla und Steffi Spira

Camilla und Steffi Spira

Actresses and sisters
1906 (Hamburg)–1997 (Berlin)
1908 (Vienna, Austria)–1995 (Berlin)

Camilla Spira
At the end of the 1920s, she was the epitome of the vibrant "German girl". In 1931, she played the leading role in the premiere of the international hit "White Horse Inn". In 1933, however, the career of the "non-Aryan" abruptly ended. She emigrated to Amsterdam in 1938 and in 1943, was sent to a concentration camp but miraculously survived. Returning to Western Germany in 1947, she achieved fame in successful films such as "Emil and the Detectives" (1954) and "Des Teufels General" (1954).

Steffi Spira
The child of a Jewish family of actors, she discovered the theatre, and the Communist Party, at an early age. She emigrated to Mexico during the NS regime. In 1947 it was obvious which part of Germany she would call home. Steffi Spira became a prominent figure in GDR theatre. Inwardly, however, she was at odds with the reality of the state. On November 4, 1989, she was among the initiators of the mass demonstration at Alexanderplatz in East Berlin, where she demanded the resignation of the SED leadership under thunderous applause.

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