Gert Fröbe

[MikeW]

It turns out that Gert Fröbe as seen in Goldfinger and "The Longest Day" served in the German Armed Forces in WW2 between 1944 and 1945.

Does anybody know exactly what branch and what he did?

[Nightwish]

He was also an actor in "Paris brûle-t-il?".

As far as I know, he was in an medical-unit.

[MikeW]

He was also an actor in "Paris brûle-t-il?".

As far as I know, he was in an medical-unit.

Obviously Third Reich Germany exempted military age men in theatre occupations until September 1944 as Wikipeda stated "In September 1944, the Nazis closed down theatres in Germany and he was drafted into the German Army, where he served until the end of World War II.[1]"

Now I just remembered in Goldfinger his character is shown a Nazi gold bar by Sean Connery playing Bond/007. That is uncanny.

On the other hand only In September 1944, the Nazis closed down theatres in Germany and he was drafted into the German Army, where he served until the end of World War II.[1]

Now if anyone could tell us about Karl-Otto Alberty's whereabouts during WW2, obviously he was in the Hitler Youth but the question is did he see combat or service with a anti-aircraft artillery unit in 1944 or 1945?

[HPL2008]

Not that much can be found on Gert Fröbe's wartime service online, and some of those secondary sources are contradictory.

According to Michael Strauven's biography of the man ( https://books.google.de/books?id=sBV...%A4ter&f=false ) Fröbe had just secured employment with the prestigious Burgtheater in Vienna when he got drafted in 1941.

Due to health problems (varicose veins - for which he later had to undergo surgery - and flat feet), he was considered unfit for frontline service, but could serve as a medic in the homeland, working at a hospital in Vienna while still being permitted to be a part-time actor off-duty, until all theaters were shut down altogether in 1944. (Although that year, he was granted leave to work on a movie.)

In September 1944, Fröbe was deployed to frontline assignments after all (allegedly as punishment for telling political jokes) and at one point found himself in the Netherlands accompanying a transport of wounded servicemen before eventually winding up in Southern Germany in April 1945, where his unit was billeted at a villa in Icking in Upper Bavaria.

It was in this area that he was taken prisoner by the U.S. Army in May 1945 and interned at the POW camp at Bad Aibling, from which was soon discharged.

By the way, besides The Longest Day, he also had some other memorable German soldier roles (like Oberst Steinhäger in Triple Cross or General von Choltitz in Is Paris Burning?... And let's not forget his immortal Prussian officer Count Manfred von Holstein in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines).