Rosa von Praunheim, born Holger Bernhard Bruno Waldemar Mischwitzky, was 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.

Filmography

• 2025Satanic Sow — Director, Writer, Editor
• 2024Thirty Years with the Whip — Director, Author
• 2022Glückskind: Der schwule Filmemacher Rosa von Praunheim ist 80
• 2022Rex Gildo: The Last Dance — Erzähler, Writer, Director, Producer
• 2021Die Nachtigall – Der grausame Sohn — Producer, Director
• 2020Operndiven - Operntunten — Director
• 2020Smart Berlin – Der „Stutti“
• 2019Darkroom — Director, Producer, Screenplay
• 2018Friendship of Men — Himself, Director, Writer, Producer
• 2017ACT! Wer bin ich? — Director
• 2017My Wonderful West Berlin
• 2017Survival in Berlin-Neukölln — Director, Writer, Editor
• 2015Desire Will Set You Free — Ezra's Agent
• 2015Praunheim Memoires — Self, Producer, Writer, Director
• 2015Tough Love — Director, Producer, Writer
• 2015Vater — Man in Berlin
• 2014Auf der Suche nach Heilern — Writer, Director
• 2014Hitler und Jesus – eine Liebesgeschichte — Director
• 2014Laura – Das Juwel von Stuttgart — Director
• 2014Mario Wirz — Self, Director
• 2013I Feel Like Disco — Rosa von Praunheim
• 2012Axel und Peter - Titten für Arsch — Director, Writer, Producer, Editor
• 2012Germans Taste the Best — Director
• 2012I am a Poem — Self, Producer, Editor
• 2012King of Comics — Director, Editor, Producer, Writer
• 2012Rosas Welt – 70 neue Filme von Rosa von Praunheim — Editor, Writer, Producer, Director
• 2011Rent Boys — Self, Director, Writer, Producer
• 201020 × Brandenburg — Director
• 2010New York Memories — Director, Writer
• 200924 Hours Berlin — Director
• 2009History of Hell — Director
• 2009On the Other Side of the Screen: 100 Years of Moviemento Cinema
• 2008Can I Be Your Bratwurst, Please? — Director, Editor, Screenplay
• 2008Dead Gay Men and Living Lesbians — Director
• 2008Der Rosa Riese — Director
• ANNE WILL
• 2007Mit Olga auf der Wolga — Director
• 2007Six Dead Students — Director, Screenplay
• 2007Two Mothers — Writer, Director
• 2005Liebe und Leid – Albrecht Becker — Director, Writer
• 2005Men, Heroes and Gay Nazis — Self, Director, Writer, Producer
• 2005Schwein gehabt – Joe Luga — Director, Writer
• 2005Umsonst Gelebt: Walter Schwarze — Director, Writer
• 2005Who is Helene Schwarz? — Writer, Director
• 2005Your Heart in My Head — Director, Screenplay, Producer
• 2003Charlotte in Sweden — Self, Director
• 2003Ratten 07 – Im Berliner Dschungel — Director
• 2002Cows Knocked Up by Fog — Screenplay, Director
• 2002Pfui, Rosa! — Self, Director
• 2002Queens Don’t Cry — Director, Screenplay, Producer
• 2000Fassbinder's Women — Director
• 2000The Einstein of Sex: Life and Work of Dr. M. Hirschfeld — Director, Producer
• 2000Wonderful Wrodow — Director
• 1998Gay Courage: 100 Years of the Gay Movement — Director
• 1996Transexual Menace — Self - Interviewer, Director, Writer
• 1995Neurosia: Fifty Years of Perversity — Director, Writer, Producer
• 1994Meine Oma hatte einen Nazipuff — Director, Writer
• 1992I Am My Own Woman — Screenplay, Director, Producer
• 1991Ein Mann namens Pis — Producer, Director
• 1991Proud and Gay — Director
• 1990Die Weisheit — Director
• 1990Fire Under Your Ass — Director, Writer, Producer
• 1990Life Is Like a Cucumber — Director, Writer, Producer
• 1990Positive — Self, Director, Writer, Editor, Producer
• 1990Silence = Death — Self, Director, Writer, Editor
• 1989Survival in New York — Director, Writer
• 1988Anita – Dances of Vice — Director, Writer, Editor, Producer
• 1987Dolly, Lotte and Maria — Interviewer, Producer, Director, Writer
• 1986A Virus Knows No Morals — Rüdiger Kackinski, Producer, Writer, Director
• 1984Horror Vacui — Director, Writer
• 1984The Bite
• 1983City of Lost Souls — Director, Writer
• 1983Red Love — Director, Writer, Director of Photography
• 1981Our Corpses Are Still Alive — Director
• 1979Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts — Editor, Producer, Cinematography, Writer, Director
• 1979Death Magazine: or How to Be a Flowerpot — Camera Operator, Director, Writer, Producer, Editor
• 1979Der 24. Stock — Director
• 1979Tally Brown, New York — Writer, Producer, Editor, Director of Photography
• 1977George and Mike Kuchar — Self, Director
• 1977Sigrid Gräfin von Richthofen — Director
• 1976I’m an Antistar — Director
• 1976Marianne Rosenberg — Director
• 1976Underground and Emigrants — Self, Director of Photography, Producer, Writer
• 1975Berliner Bettwurst — Producer, Writer, Director, Director of Photography
• 1975The Enchantment of the Blue Sailors — Matrose
• 1974Axel von Auersperg — Director, Editor, Producer, Writer
• 1974Monolog eines Stars — Director, Writer, Director of Photography, Editor
• 1974Rosa von Praunheim zeigt — Director
• 1972Footage from Q&As with Rosa von Praunheim, including MoMA’s Cineprobe Screening, 1972
• 1972Grotesk – Burlesk – Pittoresk — Director of Photography, Writer
• 1972Passions — Director
• 1972Was die Rechte nicht sieht, kommt erst recht aus dem Ohr heraus — Producer, Editor, Director, Writer
• 1971Die Bettwurst — Director, Editor, Director of Photography, Writer, Producer, Art Direction, Unit Manager
• 1971Homosexuelle in New York — Director
• 1971It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives — Director of Photography, Writer
• 1971Macbeth Oper von Rosa von Praunheim — Director, Writer
• 1969Beckett in Berlin — Director
• 1969Neurasia — Assistant Director
• 1969Rosa Arbeiter auf goldener Straße – 2. Teil — Director
• 1969Sisters of Revolution — Director
• 1968(A)lter (A)ction — Assistant Director
• 1968Carla
• 1968Rosa Arbeiter auf goldener Straße – 1. Teil — Director
• 1968Von Rosa von Praunheim — Director
• Sex und Tod — Writer, Director

Appearances as themselves (42)

• Mein liebster Dokumentarfilm — Self
• 2025Last Exit Gran Canaria — Self
• 2025Rosa <3 — Self (archive footage)
• 2024Hape Kerkeling – Total Normal — Self
• 2022Come with Me to the Cinema – The Gregors — Self
• 2021Isolation — Self
• Legendär! — Self
• 2021Meine Väter — Self
• 2021Queer Cinema — Himself
• Chez Krömer — Self
• Abendshow — Self
• 2014How I Learned to Love the Numbers — Self
• Pantoffelkino — Self - Guest
• 2012Rosakinder — Self
• 2011Mondo Lux: The Visual Worlds of Werner Schroeter — Self
• Markus Lanz — Self
• Paris-Berlin, le débat — Self
• 0511 TV Lokal — Self
• 2007Here’s Looking at You, Boy — Self
• Das perfekte Promi-Dinner — Self
• 2004Ein bisschen Luft unter die Flügel — Self
• Im Palais — Self
• Menschen bei Maischberger — Self
• ZIBB — Self
• Through the Night with... — Self
• 1997Birth of a Nation — Self
• Nachtstudio — Self
• Tietjen und Bommes — Self
• 1996I Was a Jewish Sex Worker — Self
• Zimmer frei! — Self
• Die Harald Schmidt Show — Self
• DAS! — Self
• 1990What Is the Relationship Between Rosa von Praunheim and the Male Strippers in San Francisco? — Self
• live - die ZDF-talkshow — Self
• 1986September September — Self (archive footage)
• NDR Talk Show — Self
• Bio’s Bahnhof — Self
• Kölner Treff — Self
• 3 nach 9 — Self
• Je später der Abend — Self
• 1967Silvo — Self
• Grimme Award — Self