Anne Helm (politician)

Anne Helm (born 6 July 1986) is a German politician and voice actress. She is serving as parliamentary leader of The Left in the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin since June 2020, and has been a member of the Abgeordnetenhaus since 2016. She was previously a member of the Pirate Party Germany from 2009 to 2014.

Anne Helm
Helm in 2017
Leader of The Left in the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin
Assumed office
2 July 2020
Serving with Carsten Schatz
Preceded byCarola Bluhm
Member of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin
Assumed office
27 October 2016
Personal details
Born (1986-07-06) 6 July 1986 (age 38)
Rostock, East Germany
Political partyThe Left (since 2016)
Pirate Party (2009–2014)
Spouse
Oliver Höfinghoff
(m. 2018)
ResidenceBerlin
Occupation
  • Voice actress
  • politician
  • activist

She began her voice acting career at the age of nine, and is best known for voicing Babe in the German dub of Babe. She is also known for voicing Mallory Grace in The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Early life and voice acting career

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Helm was born in Rostock as the daughter of the actor and voice actor Gunnar Helm, and grew up in Neukölln. She attended Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium and earned her Abitur in 2006.[1]

Like her father, Helm has been a voice actress since the age of nine. She is the German voice of Anna Kendrick, Margot Robbie, Ludivine Sagnier, Michelle Dockery and Jennette McCurdy. Her sister Luise, who is also a voice actress, is the German voice of Megan Fox and Scarlett Johansson.

Political career

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Pirate Party

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Helm joined the Pirate Party in 2009. She was elected to the municipal council of Neukölln in 2011, and stood in the Berlin-Neukölln constituency in the 2013 German federal election, winning 4.4% of votes. The same year, she became spokeswoman for asylum policy for the Pirate Party.[2] She also ran in the 2014 European Parliament election in fifth place on the party list, but was not elected.[3]

During the commemoration of the bombing of Dresden in February 2014, Helm attended a protest in which she appeared topless with the words "Thanks Bomber Harris" painted on her body. She initially denied involvement since she was wearing a mask in the publicised photographs, but later admitted that it was her. Her actions, particularly the phrase "thanks Bomber Harris", attracted significant criticism as well as threats of violence against her.[4][5]

In September 2014, it was reported that Helm had terminated her membership of the Pirate Party. She remained a member of the Neukölln municipal council.[6]

The Left

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In January 2016, Helm was among 36 sitting or former Pirate Party members who signed a declaration stating that they would instead give "critical and solidary" support to The Left. In an interview with Neues Deutschland, Helm explained that her decision had been made in common with other dissident Pirates, and that she wanted to bring a clear left-wing perspective to her politics.[7][8] The same month, she became of a member of the steering committee of the Emancipatory Left, a libertarian socialist faction within The Left.[9]

In March 2016, Helm announced that she would run for The Left in the 2016 Berlin state election.[10][11] She was elected to the Abgeordnetenhaus on the state party list, and became spokeswoman for media and strategies against the right.[1][12]

In 2017, Helm was found among a list of "terror suspects" drafted by the planners of the Day X plot, which investigators interpreted as a designation for potential targets to be attacked. In 2020, she was also subject to death threats from the self-proclaimed "NSU 2.0".[13]

After Carola Bluhm and Udo Wolf resigned as co-leaders of the Left parliamentary group, Helm and Carsten Schatz were elected as their successors on 2 June 2020.[14] Helm was fifth on the state party list in the 2021 Berlin state election and was re-elected;[15] she also ran in the constituency of Mitte 3, and placed fourth with 12.7% of votes.[16]

Acting roles

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Helm in 2012

Television animation

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Theatrical animation

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Dubbing roles (live-action)

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Video games

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  • "Factions". Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (in German). Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  • "Anne Helm". Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (in German). Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  • "SeeroiberJenny". Pirate Party Germany (in German). 14 April 2014. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  • "Anne Helm". The Left in the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (in German). Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  • German Dubbing Card Index
  • Anne Helm at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

References

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  1. ^ a b "Anne Helm". Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (in German). Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  2. ^ "From asylum policy to copyright: Pirate Party appoints twelve topic officers". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). 5 April 2015.
  3. ^ "Federal party conference January 2014 – candidate results". Pirate Party Germany (in German). 28 February 2018.
  4. ^ "Pirate Anne Helm confirms Bomber Harris action". Jungle World (in German). 24 February 2014. Archived from the original on 15 April 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. ^ "With Bomber Harris into the no-go". Jungle World (in German). 27 February 2014.
  6. ^ "After Christopher Lauer withdraws, Anne Helm leaves the Pirates". Tagesspiegel (in German). 20 September 2014.
  7. ^ ""I see the Left faction as the only chance"". Neues Deutschland (in German). 22 January 2016.
  8. ^ "36 ex-Pirates support The Left". Tagesspiegel (in German). 21 January 2016.
  9. ^ ""Can The Left still be saved?"". n64.cc (in German). 29 January 2016. Archived from the original on 30 January 2016.
  10. ^ "Naked ex-Pirate is now standing for The Left". Bild (in German). 17 March 2016.
  11. ^ "My application speech for The Left list for the election of the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin". seeroiberjenny.wordpress.com (in German). 13 March 2016.
  12. ^ "Ex-Pirate leader Schlömer moves into the Abgeordnetenhaus for the FDP". Der Spiegel (in German). 19 September 2016.
  13. ^ Joswig, Gareth (1 August 2020). "Anne Helm on NSU 2.0 and Neukölln: "I am a lightning rod for the right"". Die Tageszeitung (in German).
  14. ^ "Anne Helm and Carsten Schatz elected new chairpersons of The Left faction". The Left in the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (in German). 2 June 2020. Archived from the original on 2 February 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  15. ^ "Elected". Elections Berlin (in German). 14 October 2021. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  16. ^ "Mitte 3". Elections Berlin (in German). 14 October 2021. Retrieved 2 February 2022.