Actress Katharina Thalbach turns 70: cheekiest snotty nose in the world

WHow can she do that? That's how you might ask yourself when it comes to Katharina Thalbach and her many projects – theater, film, audio books, readings, acting, directing, being a theme. But how does she get everyone to love her? She was a star in East Germany, she quickly became one in the West too, and when the country came together, she became everyone's darling throughout Germany. She has long been the voice of Berlin anyway – snotty, rough, funny, cheeky and simply unmistakable.

Katharina Thalbach is a real theater child. Her mother Sabine Thalbach, who died early, soon took her to rehearsals and performances at the Berliner Ensemble, where she was engaged. Brecht's theater was Katharina Thalbach's playroom and girls' room and its director Helene Weigel was her artistic guardian. After graduating from high school, Benno Besson's daughter received a contract as a student with her “master”, who is still revered to this day, who consistently ensured that the student was properly trained in her pronunciation, which was initially too quiet, and of course became proficient in accent-free High German. Katharina Thalbach celebrated her stage debut at the BE at the age of 15, later worked at the Volksbühne with Manfred Karge and Matthias Langhoff, and appeared in countless films, including “The Tin Drum” by Volker Schlöndorff, which won an Oscar in 1980.

In addition to the large stage, she also masters the smaller format

Although she was on her way to the top, she protested against Wolf Biermann's expatriation and left the GDR in 1976 with her partner, the writer Thomas Brasch. Her psychologically precise stage presence was quickly appreciated at the West Berlin Schiller Theater, in Cologne and Zurich. She has also been directing since the late 1980s. When Harald Juhnke was often absent due to illness in her production of Zuckmayer's “The Captain of Köpenick” at Berlin's Maxim Gorki Theater in 1996, she took on his role of the shoemaker Voigt ninety times, to great acclaim.

Katharina Thalbach simply doesn't want to separate between high art and light muse – a nice exception in the German-speaking theater business. She courageously staged operas such as Janáček's “The Cunning Little Vixen” in Berlin, Strauss' “Salome” in Cologne, and most recently Verdi's “Aida” in Dresden. In addition to the large stage, she also masters the smaller format, for example in Berlin's Bar alles Reason, where she has been giving the comical love song evening “Two on a Bench” with Andreja Schneider for years. With Agatha Christie's “Murder on the Orient Express”, Katharina Thalbach gave the comedy a long-seller on Kurfürstendamm in 2021. For this purpose, she hired as a director everything that was successful in the capital's cabaret and slipped into the role of the Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot. Her daughter Anna and her granddaughter Nellie also shine in the ensemble.

Miss Merkel

The gifted popular actress Katharina Thalbach has a certain admiration for the former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Both are GDR women from the same age group, although Thalbach was born in Berlin and Merkel in Hamburg, and both like to cook potato soup. In 2013, she portrayed the Chancellor during the Guttenberg affair in an adorably amusing way in the film “The Minister”. In 2023, she appeared in front of the camera on RTL as the title character in “Miss Merkel”, who works as a hobby detective in the Uckermark in retirement. Katharina Thalbach can do (almost) everything, as she showed in 2011 when she played Friedrich II in “Friedrich – A German King”.

Today the cheerful anarchist celebrates her 70th birthday in the Berliner Ensemble with a big party, contrary to the animal seriousness and too much good taste. Through all the years, Katharina Thalbach has always retained something of the cheeky brat and has thus outwitted time. Time says thank you.