Volker Lechtenbrink was a German actor on stage, in film and television, a singer-songwriter, dubbing artist, stage director and theatre manager. He played in the anti-war movie The Bridge in 1959 at age 14. He appeared in popular television series including Der Kommissar, Der Alte and Tatort. Lechtenbrink was stage director at the Ernst Deutsch Theater in Hamburg, and intendant of the Bad Hersfelder Festspiele.

Die Brücke is a 1959 West German anti-war film directed by Austrian filmmaker Bernhard Wicki. It is based on the 1958 novel of the same name by journalist and writer Gregor Dorfmeister. The story was based on an actual event, upon the personal report of a surviving veteran who in his own youth experienced a similar situation in World War II.