In Weißensee, a signalling system for the visually impaired took five years – despite a home for the blind Actress Marga Legal only started her film career at the age of over 40. The National Socialists banned her from performing in 1935 because she had Jewish ancestry. From the 1950s she began her continuous work for film and television in the GDR. The outstanding actress in second place appears in nearly 40 cinema films and more than 180 TV movies, after the collapse of the GDR, she can be seen in many TV movies at the age of 80. She gives many of her characters a humorous character, is a bright and funny old woman in her older years. Hans Pitra and Marga Legal in AN 21 (D: Václav Gajer, 1957) Photographer: Rudolf Meister Marga Legal appeared on stage for the first time at the age of 19. She plays one of the Amazons in “Penthesilea” after Heinrich von Kleist. Her talent is discovered, soon she gets more important roles, plays the role of the viola in “What You Want” by William Shakespeare. Subsequently, Marga Legal worked on various German stages; she has performed in Wuppertal, Stuttgart, Königsberg and Hamburg. Her repertoire is vast, she is particularly convincing in the role of Elisa Doolittle in “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw. Erwin Geschonneck and Marga Legal in DIE FAHNE VON KRIWOJ ROG (D: Kurt Maetzig, 1967) Photographers: Jürgen Hoeftmann, Waltraut Pathenheimer In the early 1950s, DEFA became aware of the actress.
Marga Legal made her debut in DAS VERURTEILTE DORF (1951), directed by Martin Hellberg, as the widow Rühling. As a result, Marga Legal delivers many mature portraits of women, due to her already advanced age, roles of young women are excluded. But she convinces with her achievements of character, endows her feminine roles with strength of character, courage, kindness and warmth. In ALARM IM ZIRKUS (1954), she played the role of the receiver`s mother, a mother she also played in EINE BERLINER ROMANZE (1956), both directed by Gerhard Klein. The viewer sees her as a certain head nurse in JAHRGANG 21 (1957) directed by Vaclav Gajer, as a housekeeper in the criminal case WARE FOR CATALONIA (1958/59) by Richard Groschopp. In FÜNF TAGE – FÜNF NÄCHTE (1960), she played a tough woman in the Dresden Gemäldegalerie who could only slowly open up to the Russian occupying power. One of his few leading roles was in DIE FAHNE VON KRIWOI ROG (1967), directed by Kurt Maetzig. Alongside Erwin Geschonneck, she plays Minna Brosowski, a miner`s wife from Roter Mansfeld. She succeeds in capturing the figure socially and individually. Marga Legal is married to actor Heinz Klevenow.
They have three children. The marriage ended in divorce in 1946 and the children grew up with their mother. The artist was also politically active, became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in 1950, worked in the Kulturbund and in the management of the Maxim Gorky Theater Works Union. From 1954 to 1958 she was a city councillor in Berlin, from 1967 to 1971 a member of the People`s Chamber of the GDR. For the intersection Berliner Allee / Falkenberger Straße in Weißensee, the General Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Berlin (ABSV) has been calling for a traffic light with an acoustic signal suitable for blind people since 1990. However, the Senate`s Urban Development Department did not guarantee it until ten years later, in January 2000, according to ABSV spokesman Volker Lenk. As reported, Marga Legal had an accident last year at the Weißensee intersection. Since 1995, the “Weißensee residence for the blind” has been located here. Construction of the traffic light began this summer; Its commissioning is scheduled for September 19.
The actress was also politically active, she joined the DFD and Kulturbund in 1948 and became a member of the SED in 1952. From 1953 to 1957 she was a member of the Berlin District Executive of the Gewerkschaft Kunst, from 1954 to 1958 a member of the Berlin City Council and from 1967 to 1971 as a representative of Berlin and member of the DFD parliamentary group member of the Volkskammer and member of the Rules Committee.