Biography for
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

2 May 1973, Cologne, Germany

Birth Name

Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck

Height

6' 8¾" (2.05 m)

Spouse

Christiane Asschenfeldt

(? - present) 3 children

Trivia

Graduated from Oxford University with a degree in philosophy.

Studied at the School of Television and Film in Munich, where he broke the student record for the number of short film awards won at festivals. Upon finishing all of his course work in 2001, he decided to make a feature film instead of another short as a graduation movie. The result - five years later-was The Lives of Others (2006).

Lived in New York, Berlin, Frankfurt and Brussels during his childhood.

Has three children with his wife Christiane: Lara Cosima (born in 2003), Leo Sylvester (born in 2005), and Alexis Jaguar (born in 2007).

Trainee of Sir Richard Attenborough in 1997.

Son of Maria Lazarus Leo-Ferdinand Romwolt Wilhelm Edwin Gerhard Stefan Graf Henckel Von Donnersmarck (b. Beuthen, 26 Dec 1935), a manager of Lufthansa, and his wife Anna Maria Von Berg (b. Magdeburg, 5 Mar 1940). They married in Cologne on 31 May 1968 (religious marriage on 3 Jun 1968).

Younger brother of Sebastian Henckel-Donnersmarck.

Has an uncle, Ulrich Maria Karl Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck (b. Breslau, 16 Jan 1943, unmarried), a Cistercian abbot.

After studying in St. Petersburg, Russia for two years, he taught Russian for a while.

To prepare The Lives of Others (2006), he spent some weeks at the Heiligenkreuz Abbey in Austria, which is led by his uncle.

One of 115 invitees to join AMPAS in 2007.

Moved to Los Angeles, CA (2007).

Holds German and Austrian citizenship.

Speaks German, English, Italian, French and Russian fluently.