Born as Josef Michel Dischel to a religious Jewish family, he changed his name to pursue an acting career. A member of Austria's illegal Communist Party, he spent six months in prison during 1935 and then joined Leon Askin 'ABC Cabaret' in Vienna. After Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany, he was sent to Dachau on May 1938, from where he was transferred to Buchenwald on August. Released on April 1939, he was allowed to emigrate to Italy. Sturm then illegally crossed the border into France, where he was interned in the Camp de Milles as an enemy alien when WWII started. After the Fall of France, he resided in Marseilles, and was deported by the German occupation authorities to Auschwitz in August 1942. At January 1945, Sturm was evacuated to Buchenwald again. He survived the death march to the camp and joined Buchenwald's underground resistance. After liberation, Sturm acted in Vienna's New Theater in the Scala, which held a pro-Soviet line and was supported by the Soviet occupation authorities. Following the Soviet retreat from Austria at 1956 and the Scala's closure, Sturm moved to East Berlin. He had a long career in East German cinema and television until his death at 1984.
