Rosa von Praunheim, born Holger Bernhard Bruno Waldemar Mischwitzky, was a German film director, author, painter and the most famous gay rights activist in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A prolific director, he has made over seventy feature films. He began his career associated to the New German Cinema as a senior member of the Berlin school of underground filmmaking. He took the artistic female name Rosa von Praunheim to remind people of the pink triangle that homosexuals had to wear in Nazi concentration camps.

KNOWN FOR

ZIBB
2017
Markus Lanz
2015
DAS!
2023
Die Harald Schmidt Show
1996
NDR Talk Show
2006
Kölner Treff
2013
3 nach 9
1983
Menschen bei Maischberger
2011
Zimmer frei!
2003
Tietjen und Bommes
2015
ANNE WILL
2010
Grimme Award
2012

FILMOGRAPHY

All
Movies
TV
Acting
82
Directing
92
Writing
53
Producing
33
Camera
9
Editing
17
Art
1
Crew
1
2026
Mein liebster Dokumentarfilm
as Self
2025
Rosa <3
as Self (archive footage)
2025
Last Exit Gran Canaria
as Self
2024
Hape Kerkeling – Total Normal
as Self
2023
DAS!
2022
Rex Gildo: The Last Dance
as Erzähler
2022
Come with Me to the Cinema – The Gregors
as Self
2022
Glückskind: Der schwule Filmemacher Rosa von Praunheim ist 80
2022
Legendär!
as Self
2022
Chez Krömer
as Self
2021
Isolation
as Self
2021
Queer Cinema
as Himself
2021
Meine Väter
as Self
2020
Smart Berlin – Der „Stutti“
2020
Abendshow
as Self
2019
Darkroom
2018
Friendship of Men
as Himself
2017
My Wonderful West Berlin
2017
ZIBB
as Self
2017
Pantoffelkino
as Self - Guest
2015
Vater
as Man in Berlin
2015
Desire Will Set You Free
as Ezra's Agent
2015
Praunheim Memoires
as Self
2015
Markus Lanz
as Self
2015
Tietjen und Bommes
as Self
2014
How I Learned to Love the Numbers
as Self
2014
Mario Wirz
as Self
2013
I Feel Like Disco
as Rosa von Praunheim
2013
Kölner Treff
as Self
2012
Rosas Welt – 70 neue Filme von Rosa von Praunheim
2012
Rosakinder
as Self
2012
King of Comics
2012
I am a Poem
as Self
2012
Grimme Award
as Self
2011
Rent Boys
as Self
2011
Mondo Lux: The Visual Worlds of Werner Schroeter
as Self
2011
Menschen bei Maischberger
as Self
2011
0511 TV Lokal
as Self
2010
ANNE WILL
2009
On the Other Side of the Screen: 100 Years of Moviemento Cinema
2009
Paris-Berlin, le débat
as Self
2008
Das perfekte Promi-Dinner
as Self
2008
Through the Night with...
as Self
2008
DAS!
as Self
2008
Im Palais
as Self
2007
Here’s Looking at You, Boy
as Self
2007
Two Mothers
2006
NDR Talk Show
as Self
2005
Men, Heroes and Gay Nazis
as Self
2005
Nachtstudio
as Self
2004
Ein bisschen Luft unter die Flügel
as Self
2003
Charlotte in Sweden
as Self
2003
Zimmer frei!
as Self
2002
Pfui, Rosa!
as Self
1997
Birth of a Nation
as Self
1996
I Was a Jewish Sex Worker
as Self
1996
Transexual Menace
as Self - Interviewer
1996
Die Harald Schmidt Show
as Self
1990
Fire Under Your Ass
1990
Positive
as Self
1990
Silence = Death
as Self
1990
What Is the Relationship Between Rosa von Praunheim and the Male Strippers in San Francisco?
as Self
1990
live - die ZDF-talkshow
as Self
1989
Survival in New York
1988
Anita – Dances of Vice
1987
Dolly, Lotte and Maria
as Interviewer
1986
September September
as Self (archive footage)
1986
A Virus Knows No Morals
as Rüdiger Kackinski
1984
The Bite
1983
3 nach 9
as Self
1982
Bio’s Bahnhof
as Self
1979
Tally Brown, New York
1977
George and Mike Kuchar
as Self
1976
Underground and Emigrants
as Self
1975
The Enchantment of the Blue Sailors
as Matrose
1974
Monolog eines Stars
1973
Je später der Abend
as Self
1972
Grotesk – Burlesk – Pittoresk
1972
Footage from Q&As with Rosa von Praunheim, including MoMA’s Cineprobe Screening, 1972
1968
Von Rosa von Praunheim
1968
Carla
1967
Silvo
as Self