Bruno Ganz, the Swiss actor who played Adolf Hitler in the film Downfall, has died at the age of 77, his agent said on Saturday.
It is passed from actor to actor to mark the recipient as the “most significant and worthy” German-speaking actor of their era.
The actor became internationally renowned for his 2004 portrayal of the dictator of Germany in the final days inside his Berlin bunker.
At the time of his death Ganz was the holder of the Iffland-Ring – a diamond-studded ring stamped with the image of German actor August Wilhelm Iffland.