Actress Laura Lippmann stands up for the deaf

Actress Laura Lippmann, who is appearing in the ZDF crime thriller "SOKO Wismar" this week, is committed to the interests of deaf people. "There are 80,000 deaf people in Germany - not counting the number of unreported cases - and 15 million people who are hard of hearing, many of whom also use sign language," said the 36-year-old from Halle (Saale) in an interview with the German Press Agency. "But I think there are currently only between 700 and 900 interpreters for this many people."

Her sister is also deaf

This is one of the reasons why she trained as a communication assistant for German sign language: "Because I want more visibility for the sign language community," said the former "Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten" actress. This form of communication has only been officially recognized as an independent language since 2002.

Three years ago, Lippmann played the hearing film sister of deaf lead actress Anne Zander in the ZDF drama "Du sollst hören".

The Leipzig-born actress also has family connections. "My older sister - eight years older than me - is deaf. Sign languages, these beautiful languages, were banned in Europe for a long time, which meant that deaf people were denied access to education for a long time."

Effects from the 19th century

This ban dates back to the 19th century. "Educators from all over Europe enforced it at the so-called Milan Congress in 1880. As a result, sign language was suppressed in schools and in the deaf community for around 100 years."

This also had an impact on her sister, says Lippmann. "She still used German sign language in kindergarten and then less and less from school onwards because she was then placed in a class for the hard of hearing. The teachers didn't all know sign language. At home, it was always a mix of sign language and spoken language." Since her training as a communication assistant, she and her sister have pretty much only communicated in German sign language.

In the new "SOKO Wismar" episode "Schlechte Gesellschaft" on Wednesday (December 17) at 6 p.m. on ZDF, Laura Lippmann plays a suspect. The crime thriller is also fresh on the ZDF streaming portal.