Carmen-Maja Antoni

Carmen-Maja Antoni was born into the chaos that followed the Second World War. Her father, Pedro Antoni, was an artist who left the family scene soon after she was born, leaving the baby with her mother, Ursula Antoni-Orendt, an "all-round artist" who later became a production director with the DFF, East Germany's national broadcasting corporation. Carmen-Maja made her camera debut at the age of eleven, as one of the three "Blue Streaks" in a Young Pioneer Cabaret programme on national television.[2]

By the time of the successful completion of her final school exams she had already negotiated her way through the admissions process for the Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg in the Babelsberg quarter of Potsdam. On joining, she became the academy's youngest student. As soon as she had completed her studies she was hired by Potsdam's Hans Otto Theatre. Still aged only 18, it was here that in 1964 she appeared as an exceptionally young "Grusche", the heroine in "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" by Bertolt Brecht. Her performance drew praise from Brecht's widow and from Brecht's old friend, the composer Paul Dessau. She later took the part of "Minna" in Lessings's "Minna von Barnhelm". By 1970 Carmen-Maja Antoni had moved on to the People's Theatre in the centre of Berlin.[2]

She has been a member of the Berliner Ensemble Theatre Company since 1976, and has recently (2005) appeared there as the lead protagonist in "Mother Courage and Her Children". Over the years she has played in a very large number of stage plays and films, and her unmistakable voice has also been heard in various radio plays. In addition, she teaches at the Konrad Wolf Film and Television Academy in Babelsberg.[2]

Antoni built her career in the German Democratic Republic during the decades of German division, but following reunification hers has become a well-known television presence across German-speaking central Europe thanks in part to her appearances in the long-running (1994–2013) ZDF crime drama series Rosa Roth in which she played Karin von Lomanski, a close colleague of Police Commissioner Rosa Roth.[2]

• 1974: Critics' Prize of the Berliner Zeitung: Best Actress of the year for the role of "Eva" in Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti
• 1975: Critics' Prize of the Berliner Zeitung: Best Actress of the year for the role of Herakes in Herakes V by Heiner Müller
• 1987: Critics' Prize Best Actress of the year for the role of Grandmother in Kindheit
• 1988: Critics' Prize of the Berliner Zeitung: Best Actress of the year for the role of the Mother in Baal
• 1988: 5th National Film Festival of the GDR: National film prize for the best lead actress for the film Kindheit
• 1989: Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic for her complete artistic output
• 1990: Helene Weigel Medal For the role of Mother-in-law in Der Selbstmörder
• 2008: German Critics' Prize

• Literature by and about Carmen-Maja Antoni in the German National Library catalogue
• Carmen-Maja Antoni at IMDb
• DEFA-Sternstunden
• Biographie auf film-zeit.de
• "Wer hat Angst vor der Antoni?", Die Zeit, Januar 2000, Nr. 3, Portrait