Barbara Rütting

Barbara Rütting was born Waltraut Irmgard Goltz in Wietstock (Brandenburg), the daughter of teachers. She grew up and went to school in Berlin and Luckenwalde in Brandenburg. After matriculating, she moved to Denmark where she sought employment and worked variously as a maid, as a librarian and as a translator. Following the end of World War II, Barbara returned to Berlin to study drama (abandoning her dream of becoming a medical doctor). In 1952, she made her screen debut in Postlagernd Turteltaube (1952) (promoted at the time as 'a comedy against fear') followed four years later by appearances on the German and Austrian stage. During this phase of her career, she came to specialise in women wrestling with difficult sociopolitical situations or affairs of the heart. Her roles ranged from naive heroines in Heimat films to self-assured ladies in more demanding fare. The latter included Helmut Käutner's The Last Bridge (1954). Her role as a Serbian student and member of a group of wartim