Barbara Auer
Personal details
  • Born:
    • Birthday: 1959-02-01
    • Born Place: Konstanz, Germany

Barbara Auer

Barbara Auer is one of Germany's most distinguished and award-winning actresses, born on February 1, 1959, in Konstanz, West Germany. She trained at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (Hamburg University of Music and Performing Arts) and began her career on the stage before transitioning successfully to film and television in the late 1980s. Auer achieved an early breakthrough and critical acclaim with the TV film Der Boss aus dem Westen (The Boss from the West) in 1988, followed by winning the prestigious German Film Award for Best Actress for her lead role in the divorce drama Meine Tochter gehört mir (My Daughter Belongs to Me) in 1993. Her career is notable for her frequent and acclaimed collaborations with auteur Christian Petzold, appearing in his films Die innere Sicherheit (The State I Am In, 2000), Yella (2007), Transit (2018), and most recently, Miroirs No. 3 (2025), where she played the character Betty. Beyond cinema, she has had a consistent television presence, notably as Inspector Lisa Brenner in the long-running crime series Nachtschicht (Night Shift) and for her award-winning performance in the TV film Das Ende einer Nacht (The End of a Night, 2012), for which she won the Grimme Award and the German Television Award. She also appeared in the Hollywood film The Book Thief (2013).

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