im herzen eIn dissident

Conrad veidt

the rebel who weaponized stardom

Acrylic and charcoal on paper

100 x 70 cm

Conrad Veidt (1893–1943) speaks to me because he didn’t use his fame merely to please, but also to confront. In 1919, Veidt played the lead role in Anders als die Andern — the first film to openly address homosexuality. At a time of moral censorship and criminalization, he showed the human cost of persecution based on sexual orientation. When fascism began to rise, he also refused to conform. Refusing offers by Goebbels and herewith limiting his career, he left Germany with his wife and deliberately took on the role of a Nazi in Hollywood — as a warning (and because of his accent ;)).

Abstract portrait of a woman with short hair, resting her chin on her hand, against a pink background, painted with bold, colorful brushstrokes.
Abstract painting of a woman with dark hair, smiling, sets against a vibrant pink, blue, and yellow background.
An abstract painting of a woman with short dark hair, wearing a light-colored shirt, holding a mobile phone, with a pink and coral background.

too brave for 1919

Anders als die Andern (1919) was cinematic dynamite: the first film to openly portray homosexuality with dignity. Conrad Veidt — himself married to a woman —risked his rising stardom to play the lead, making a stand when it was dangerous to do so. The Nazis later banned and destroyed most copies, but its surviving fragments still blaze as a radical act of compassion and defiance.