Mareike Carrière: The actress died ten years ago

The expressive face, the clear voice, the open look, her humorous, friendly nature. Qualities that go beyond the everyday requirements of an actress – and that are sorely missed today.

This made Mareike Carrière a genuine artist, the likes of which have become rare on stages and film sets today. “She was able to give her characters a naturalness and at the same time a subtlety that was not necessarily present in most scripts,” said editor-in-chief of “Zeit” in his obituary for her good friend. Mareike Carrière died ten years ago on March 17th. She was only 59 years old.

With “Großstadtrevier” she becomes a series favorite

The audience will primarily see her as police officer Ellen Wegener from the “Großstadtrevier” and as Dr. Katrin Brockmann from “Praxis Bülowbogen”, two equally popular and successful ARD series, will be remembered. However, these TV appearances only showed a fraction of the personality of this extraordinary actress, who comes from an equally extraordinary family.

Mareike Carrière is the daughter of the well-known psychiatrist and neurologist Bern Carrière (1921-2015), who came from a Huguenot family. The zoologist Prof. Justus Carrière (1854-1893), the composer and music educator Paul Carrière (1887-1929), the writer and philosopher Moriz Carrière (1817-1895) and the chemist Prof. Justus Liebig (1803-1873) are ancestors.

The three children of psychiatrist Bern Carrière and his wife, psychoanalyst Jutta Carrière, all become actors: Mathieu Carrière (73), the eldest son, even has an international career. Till Carrière, two years his junior, completed the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Berlin, where his magnificent comic talent was noticed and the cult director Peter Zadek (1926-2009) brought him to the Bochum Schauspielhaus. In 1978, the young man, suffering from manic-depressive illness, took his own life at the age of 26.

This suicide caused “trauma” for Mathieu Carrière and his sister Mareike, who was four years younger than him. says Mathieu in 2011, “you need a whole life to process something like that.”

A sibling pair with international success

Mareike Carrière went to drama school in Lübeck at the age of 16. After graduating, she got her high school diploma and moved to Paris. Her brother Mathieu has already established himself there, who, in addition to studying philosophy at the Sorbonne, has become a young star of French film and works with famous colleagues such as Orson Welles, Yves Montand and Romy Schneider as well as with directors such as Eric Rohmer, Roger Vadim, Marguerite Duras and Louis Malle worked.

Mareike Carrière also studied English and French at the Sorbonne University in Paris, received her diploma as a translator – and turned to film: in 1978, she starred in the film adaptation of Joseph von Eichendorff’s novella “Aus dem” under the direction of Bernhard Sinkel (84). “Life of a good-for-nothing”. This was followed in the same year by “A Man is Getting in Ages” (director: Gérard Blain) and the Nazi drama “Flamme Up”, for which she received the Critics’ Prize.

When she moved from Paris to Berlin in 1981 and married (her first marriage) the film producer Joachim von Vietinghoff (82), Mareike Carrière was already a serious actress with her first international successes. She now plays in Berlin theaters, continues to make films and is completing further training as a respiratory teacher.

Her career paths repeatedly cross those of her brother, who was much better known at the time. Both star in extraordinary films such as “Yerma” or “Marie Ward – Between Gallows and Glory”, and “Zugzwang” is directed by Mathieu Carrière.

“Sometimes I would like to have more of Mareike’s self-perception”

Despite all their acting talent and a common zodiac sign – Leo, Virgo ascendant – they are a very different pair of siblings: he is temperamental to the point of being quick-tempered, a man who seems to enjoy moving between high art, tabloids and trash, the actually philosopher with a university degree and author a great standard work about Heinrich von Kleist. She, the quiet sister, thoughtful, modest and questioning, with consistency and patience.

“Sometimes I would like to have more of Mareike’s self-perception. She is the one who is constantly shedding her skin and managing to develop,” he says about her. Mareike answers evenly: “I’m just curious. And I think the more different things an actor can do, the better he is. He then says that she has “more shame, more dignity. She’s the smarter and more emotional of the two of us.”

She plays the first patrol police officer in Germany

With these gifts she gives seemingly superficial roles the right depth of focus. When she became Germany’s first patrol officer in the “big city district” in 1986, she had previously worked as a police officer and learned shooting and karate.

Mareike Carrière moves across the entire spectrum of her industry. She plays in the youth series “Die Schule am See”, takes part in the comedy format “What doesn’t fit, will be made to fit” for ProSieben and, on the other hand, works in the film adaptation of the Grass novel “Unkenrufe” or in the multi-award-winning ARD film “The girl from abroad”. And she always plays theater and goes on tour in Germany with the play “The 7 Deadly Sins”.

She now lives in Hamburg, in her second marriage (which also has no children) with the dentist Gerd Klement, and her beloved brother Mathieu also lives temporarily in the Hanseatic city. Mareike Carrière plays theater, goes on tour and – after further training – works as a systemic coach. In 2012 she became ill. Bladder cancer.

She succumbs to a difficult battle with cancer

The illness dominated her life for two years. Hope and confidence alternate with exhaustion and lack of strength. She is being treated in clinics under a different name, but she is filming ZDF’s “Spring” TV series, now wears a wig, and when she feels weak, she says: “I’m just a little queasy.” Above all, she tries not to burden her family with her illness.

In 2014, cancer defeated this strong woman, and in the end the metastases spread everywhere in her body. She died on March 17, 2014, surrounded by her family. At the funeral service in Hamburg, in addition to her husband, friends and colleagues, there are also father Bern Carrière, who turns 93 on the day of her death and now has to bury his daughter, and brother Mathieu, who is mourning the “most important person in my life.” cries.

He says saying goodbye was very difficult for him, “but it was harder for her.” She gave two instructions for her funeral service: to put her ashes in her favorite teapot and “champagne for everyone.” At the end, white balloons rise into the sky, as if it were a “happy farewell”. Just as Mareike Carrière wanted.