“Henny Porten was certainly not engaged politically in a strict sense, nor is it possible to describe her as an icon of feminine emanicipation. Nevertheless her blonde maternal image does embody a few contradictions. Many of her silent films are posed against prejudice and social problems. She herself was a noteworthy anti-conformist: she remained an enormous star even when the screen was dominated not only by the Vamp, but also by the Girl. She succeeded in making the jump into sound. In 1933 she was in Hans Steinhoffs’ Mutter und Kind, officially of recognized ‘political value to the State’. She then remained aside for years because she refused to divorce her Jewish husband. In 1943 she obtained a prestigious role, offering her new possibilities as an actress, that of Wilhelmine Buchholz. After the end of the war she hoped in vain for job offers suitable to her artistic and moral ambitions. She played extensively in the theaters of Lubeck and Hamburg and in the cinema obtained only a secondary role in a comedy. In 1953/54, in the DDR, she was the protagonist in Carola Lamberti and Das Fräulein von Scuderi, both produced by the Defa. In 1957 she returned at last to Berlin where, in 1906, she had initially began her career. She died in1960. It is time to remind ourselves of her”. (Helga Belach, Henny Porten, 1986)