Biography of Rosa von Praunheim

Rosa von Praunheim (born 25 November 1942 in Riga; died 17 December 2025 in Berlin) was a German filmmaker, author and activist. With more than 150 short and feature-length films, he shaped German queer cinema, public discussion of HIV/AIDS and debates about homosexuality in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Birth, adoption and chosen name

Rosa von Praunheim was born in Riga during the German occupation. After birth he spent time in an orphanage and was later adopted by a couple who brought him to Germany. His civil name was Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky; he learned more precise details about his origins only very late in life. He chose Rosa von Praunheim as an artistic name: Rosa referred to the pink triangle used to mark homosexual men in concentration camps, while Praunheim referred to a district of Frankfurt.

Films and public life

After early work around art, theatre and film, Praunheim became known to a wider public in the early 1970s. Die Bettwurst turned everyday kitsch, camp and improvisation into an idiosyncratic feature-film form. Even more consequential was Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt. The WDR film was shown on 31 January 1972 in the broadcaster's regional third programme and was so controversial during its nationwide ARD broadcast in 1973 that Bavaria opted out.

Queer public life and the AIDS crisis

Praunheim's films often worked with direct speech, exaggeration, documentary observation and deliberate irritation. He was interested in people who rarely appeared in bourgeois images of normality: gay men, trans people, drag performers, eccentrics, older people and outsiders. In the 1980s and 1990s he also made films about the AIDS crisis, was active around ACT UP and made illness, fear, solidarity and stigma visible.

Conflicts and the 1991 outing debate

Praunheim's activism was uncomfortable and widely disputed. On 10 December 1991, in the RTL programme Explosiv - Der heiße Stuhl, he publicly described Alfred Biolek and Hape Kerkeling as gay without their consent. He later explained the action as an attempt during the AIDS crisis to demand solidarity from prominent homosexual men. It triggered a broad debate about visibility, consent, privacy and political responsibility, and remains one of the most controversial parts of his public work.

Later work and honours

Praunheim remained productive into old age. He made portraits, documentaries, autobiographical films and works about Berlin, New York, queer history and art. In 2008 he received the Rosa Courage Prize; from 2009 he was a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. After his death, WDR also recalled later productions such as Überleben in New York, New York Memories, Praunheim Memories, Härte and Dreißig Jahre an der Peitsche.

Farewell

Rosa von Praunheim died in Berlin on 17 December 2025 at the age of 83. Only days earlier he had married his long-time partner Oliver Sechting. His work remains connected with a cinema that did not avoid conflict and made private forms of life visible as part of public history.