
Rosa von Praunheim
Biography
Rosa von Praunheim, born Holger Bernhard Bruno Waldemar Mischwitzky, is 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.
Acting (43 movies)

Isolation
2021

Rex Gildo: The Last Dance
2022

Silvo
1967

Men, Heroes and Gay Nazis
2005

Here’s Looking at You, Boy
2007

Queer Cinema
2021

Rosas Welt – 70 neue Filme von Rosa von Praunheim
2012

Dolly, Lotte and Maria
1987

Fire Under Your Ass
1990

September September
1986

Come With Me to the Cinema – The Gregors
2022

Positive
1990

Silence = Death
1990

Underground and Emigrants
1976

Tally Brown, New York
1979

Glückskind: Der schwule Filmemacher Rosa von Praunheim ist 80
2022

Survival in New York
1989

Two Mothers
2007

The Bite
1984

The Enchantment of the Blue Sailors
1975

Desire Will Set You Free
2015

My Wonderful West Berlin
2017

Rosakinder
2012

I Feel Like Disco
2013

I Was a Jewish Sex Worker
1996

Birth of a Nation
1997

Rent Boys
2011

Anita – Dances of Vice
1988

Von Rosa von Praunheim
1968

On the Other Side of the Screen: 100 Years of Moviemento Cinema
2009

How I Learned to Love the Numbers
2014

Friendship of Men
2018

Mondo Lux: The Visual Worlds of Werner Schroeter
2011

King of Comics
2012

Darkroom
2019

Carla
1968

Hape Kerkeling – Total Normal
2024

Praunheim Memoires
2015

Rosa <3
2025

A Virus Knows No Morals
1986

Transexual Menace
1996

Mario Wirz
2014

Last Exit Gran Canaria
2025
Directing (85 movies)

Die Bettwurst
1971

Queens Don’t Cry
2002
Pfui, Rosa!
2002

Cows Knocked Up by Fog
2002

Can I Be Your Bratwurst, Please?
2008

I Am My Own Woman
1992

Mario Wirz
2014

Laura – Das Juwel von Stuttgart
2014

The Einstein of Sex: Life and Work of Dr. M. Hirschfeld
2000

Rent Boys
2011
Six Dead Students
2007

King of Comics
2012

Neurosia: Fifty Years of Perversity
1995

A Virus Knows No Morals
1986

City of Lost Souls
1983

Anita – Dances of Vice
1988
History of Hell
2009

Red Love
1983

Silence = Death
1990

New York Memories
2010

Life Is Like a Cucumber
1990

Dolly, Lotte and Maria
1987

Horror Vacui
1984

Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts
1979

Men, Heroes and Gay Nazis
2005

Umsonst Gelebt: Walter Schwarze
2005

Rex Gildo: The Last Dance
2022

Dead Gay Men and Living Lesbians
2008

Positive
1990

Fire Under Your Ass
1990

Tough Love
2015

Hitler und Jesus – eine Liebesgeschichte
2014
Die Nachtigall – Der grausame Sohn
2021
Was die Rechte nicht sieht, kommt erst recht aus dem Ohr heraus
1972
Grotesk – Burlesk – Pittoresk
1972
Die Weisheit
1990

Beckett in Berlin
1969

Underground and Emigrants
1976

Tally Brown, New York
1979
Homosexuelle in New York
1971
Rosa von Praunheim zeigt
1974

Marianne Rosenberg
1976
George and Mike Kuchar
1977
Sigrid Gräfin von Richthofen
1977
Charlotte in Sweden
2003
Passions
1972

Two Mothers
2007

Survival in New York
1989

Berliner Bettwurst
1975

Fassbinder's Women
2000
Ein Mann namens Pis
1991
Wonderful Wrodow
2000

Survival in Berlin-Neukölln
2017

Transexual Menace
1996

Gay Courage: 100 Years of the Gay Movement
1998
Your Heart in My Head
2005

Praunheim Memoires
2015

ACT! Wer bin ich?
2017
Der Rosa Riese
2008
Mit Olga auf der Wolga
2007
Ratten 07 – Im Berliner Dschungel
2003
Der 24. Stock
1979

Death Magazine: or How to Be a Flowerpot
1979

Friendship of Men
2018
Who is Helene Schwarz?
2005
Liebe und Leid – Albrecht Becker
2005
Schwein gehabt – Joe Luga
2005
Rosa Arbeiter auf goldener Straße – 1. Teil
1968

Darkroom
2019
Sisters of Revolution
1969
Rosa Arbeiter auf goldener Straße – 2. Teil
1969

Von Rosa von Praunheim
1968

Rosas Welt – 70 neue Filme von Rosa von Praunheim
2012

Auf der Suche nach Heilern
2014

24 Hours Berlin
2009

20 × Brandenburg
2010

Operndiven - Operntunten
2020
Stolz und schwul
1991

It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives
1971

I’m an Antistar
1976

Our Corpses Are Still Alive
1981

Thirty Years with the Whip
2024

Satanic Sow
2025
Axel von Auersperg
1974
Macbeth Oper von Rosa von Praunheim
1971