Hanna Schygulla is a German actress and chanson singer associated with the theater and film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She first worked for Fassbinder in 1965 and became an active participant in the New German Cinema.
Hanna Schygulla Biography: Movies and TV Shows, Young, Personal Life, Partner
Schygulla was born in Königshütte (now Chorzów, Poland) to German parents Antonie (née Mzyk) and Joseph Schygulla. Both the names Schygulla (also spelled Szyguła) and Mzyk are of Polish/Silesian origin, indicating a mixed heritage and/or the process of teutonisation of Slavs as was very common in Silesia in the 19th century.
Her father, a timber merchant by profession, was drafted as an infantryman in the German Army and was captured by American forces in Italy, subsequently being held as a prisoner of war until 1948.
Schygulla appeared in the 2000 Béla Tarr film Werckmeister Harmonies, and in 2002 in VB51, a performance by the Artist Vanessa Beecroft. Five years later, she appeared in the film The Edge of Heaven, directed by Fatih Akın, to wide acclaim.