---
name: "Matthias Brandt"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/matthias-brandt"
fi1m_id: "matthias-brandt"
imdb_id: "nm0104966"
tmdb_id: 35382
wikidata_id: "Q123309"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "7 October 1961"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 80
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-10-23T21:12:55.941410+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Matthias Brandt

## Identity

Matthias Brandt

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/matthias-brandt
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** matthias-brandt
- **IMDb ID:** nm0104966
- **TMDB ID:** 35382
- **Wikidata ID:** Q123309
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Brandt, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123309, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0104966/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/35382

Actor. Born 7 October 1961 in Berlin, Germany.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 7 October 1961, Berlin, Germany
- **Active:** 2017–present
- **Also known as:** 마티아스 브란트
- **Average Fi1m score:** 80, as actor, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 82 (1), 2020s 79 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Brandt, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123309, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0104966/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/35382

## Streaming the US now

- **Apple TV:** [*Babylon Berlin*](https://film.one/tv/babylon-berlin.md) (82)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Matthias Brandt

> Matthias Brandt does less on screen than almost any actor working, and the less he does the more we watch. Publishers, policemen, a bartender telling another man's story: men who have read the file before you have opened it.

In *Afire* (2023), Christian Petzold's summer-house comedy, Matthias Brandt arrives late as Helmut, the publisher, and sits down to read the manuscript his author has been protecting all film. Thomas Schubert's Leon watches his face for a verdict. Brandt gives him a page turned, a pause, a kindness around the eyes that is worse than any judgement. We found the scene hard to look at, because Brandt lets us see that Helmut has read a great many manuscripts, knows within a page what he is holding, and is too tired and too decent to say so. Bettina Böhler holds on Leon a beat longer than is comfortable. It is the best scene in the film, and Brandt barely moves.

That is the trade, and it was learned on stage. Brandt began in the theatre in 1985, in Mannheim, Zurich and Bochum, and the screen took him slowly, from the late 1980s, then properly in television from the mid-2000s. Seven years as commissioner Hanns von Meuffels in *Polizeiruf 110* (2011–2018) made him a face German viewers knew. August Benda in *Babylon Berlin* (2017) put him in front of the rest of us. Then came Petzold, who has now used him four times, beginning with *Transit* (2018), where Brandt is a bartender who narrates the film from behind his counter. A man telling someone else's story, at one remove, and asking for none of the attention: it is hard to think of a part that suits him better.

He is usually the one with some authority over the others: the publisher, the policeman, the father, the official. What he does with that is let the contradiction show without announcing it, so that the decency and the tiredness and whatever he is not saying all sit on the same still face. The risk is the one his reputation itself points to. He is nearly always asked to be serious, and an actor cast for gravity for long enough can find that stillness has become a habit rather than a choice. In *Afire* it is still a choice. Helmut is the one person in the house who is not performing, and Leon's panic reads as panic because Brandt refuses to meet it halfway.

Brandt also publishes fiction, which may be why he reads other people's on screen as if the pages had weight. We would like to see him carry a film rather than a supporting part, and under a director other than Petzold who is willing to leave the quiet alone. Until then, *Afire*, and watch his face while Leon watches it.

## Biography

Matthias Brandt is a German actor, narrator and writer. Born in West Berlin in 1961, he is the son of former Chancellor Willy Brandt and Rut Brandt. He studied acting at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover and began his career in theatre, with engagements at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Schauspielhaus Zürich and Schauspielhaus Bochum; he later joined the Berliner Ensemble.

Brandt has appeared in more than seventy films and television productions since 1989. He is known for his roles as August Benda in the series *Babylon Berlin* (2017), Hanns von Meuffels in *Polizeiruf 110* (2011–2018), the bartender and narrator in *Transit* (2018), and Helmut in Christian Petzold’s *Afire* (2023). He has also collaborated again with Petzold on *Miroirs No. 3* (2025). Brandt received the Carl Zuckmayer Medal in 2024.

*Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, filmportal.de.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *Afire* (2023), Fi1m 79, as Helmut — [page](https://film.one/film/afire.md)
- *Babylon Berlin* (2017), Fi1m 82, as August Benda — [page](https://film.one/tv/babylon-berlin.md)

## Complete filmography (91)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Eine Nacht in Bangkok* (2026), as Hektor
- *Mirrors No. 3* (2025), as Richard
- *Kurzschluss hoch drei* (2024), as Martin Hofmann
- *Beckenbauer. Der letzte Kaiser* (2024), series, Actor
- *Sie sagt. Er sagt.* (2024), as Rechtsanwalt Biegler
- *Der zweite Kurzschluss* (2023), as Martin Hofmann
- *Afire* (2023), as Helmut — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/afire.md)
- *Kurzschluss* (2022), as Martin Hofmann
- *King of Stonks* (2022), series, as Magnus A. Cramer
- *The Conference* (2022), as (voice over)
- *Dark Woods* (2020), series, as Thomas Bethge
- *Sörensen's Fear* (2020), as Frieder Marek
- *Wir wären andere Menschen* (2019), as Rupert Seidlein
- *Toulouse* (2018), as Gustav
- *Unterwerfung* (2018), as Rediger
- *Transit* (2018), as Bartender / Narrator
- *Babylon Berlin* (2017), series, as August Benda — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/babylon-berlin.md)
- *Killing Stella* (2017), as Richard
- *Your Children* (2016), as Bernd Peters
- *Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe* (2016), as Ernst Feder
- *Ein großer Aufbruch* (2015), Actor
- *Das Zeugenhaus* (2014), as Generalmajor Erwin Lahousen
- *Männertreu* (2014), as Georg Sahl
- *Eine verhängnisvolle Nacht* (2013), as Bernd Vossler
- *Eine mörderische Entscheidung* (2013), as Oberst Georg Klein
- *Verratene Freunde* (2013), as Andreas Rogel
- *Vier sind einer zuviel* (2013), as Felix Schubert
- *Innenansichten - Deutschland 1937* (2012), as Narrator (voice)
- *Das Ende einer Nacht* (2012), as André Weiss
- *Ruhm* (2012), as Ludwig
- *Bliss* (2012), as Noah Leyden
- *Crime Scene Cleaner* (2011), series, as Mann
- *In den besten Jahren* (2011), as Karl Wenzelburger
- *Promising the Moon* (2011), as Lorenz Schleier
- *Des Kaisers neue Kleider* (2010), as Emperor Friedhelm
- *Die Tochter des Mörders* (2010), as Kommissar Arnsberger
- *Tod einer Schülerin* (2010), as Alex Berger
- *Freche Mädchen 2* (2010), as Kati's Father
- *Ich, Ringo und das Tor zur Welt* (2010), as Horst Königstein
- *Schutzlos* (2010), as Peter Reichenberger
- *Ken Folletts Eisfieber* (2010), as Nigel Malone
- *Live Stream* (2010), as Professor Phillipp Hofmann
- *Die Frau, die im Wald verschwand* (2009), as Horst Karg
- *Die Wölfe* (2009), series, as Jakob
- *A man, a fjord!* (2009), as Dr. Reinhold Schwarz-Ebershagen
- *Ein Sommer mit Paul* (2009), as Raimund Balsam
- *Todsünde* (2008), as Jonathan Badura
- *Vertraute Angst* (2008), as Thomas Wegener
- *Mütter Väter Kinder* (2008), as Hans Kley
- *In Sachen Kaminski* (2008), as Martin Kaminski
- *My Mother, My Bride And I* (2008), as Erwin Kobarek
- *Contergan - Eine einzige Tablette* (2007), series, as Henrik Spiess
- *Der Mann von gestern* (2007), as Robert Holz / Bob Brandis
- *Die Frau am Ende der Straße* (2007), as Stefan Schneider
- *Hannah* (2007), as Jan
- *Counterparts* (2007), as Georg Hoffmann
- *Durch Himmel und Hölle* (2007), as Moritz Schreiber
- *Mord auf Rezept* (2007), as Albrecht
- *Fürchte dich nicht* (2007), as Bruno Fischer
- *Der Tote am Strand* (2006), as Ole
- *Kommissar Stolberg* (2006), series, as Viktor Seegers
- *Unter anderen Umständen* (2006), series, as Niko Brix
- *Vineta* (2006), as Hans Montag
- *Leo* (2006), as Kaplan Leonhard 'Leo' Heilmann
- *Drei Schwestern made in Germany* (2006), as Schubert
- *Schattenväter* (2005), Actor
- *Arnies Welt* (2005), as Postbote Enno
- *Mein Vater und ich* (2005), as Udo Liebich
- *The Bodyguard* (2005), as Till Sieber
- *Mr. und Mrs. Right* (2004), as Felix Schubert
- *Der Stich des Skorpion* (2004), as Volker Erler
- *Wie krieg ich meine Mutter groß?* (2004), as Hans Kley
- *Dittsche - Das wirklich wahre Leben* (2004), series, as Nachlassverwalter Vogits
- *Im Schatten der Macht* (2003), series, as Günter Guillaume
- *Der Auftrag - Mordfall in der Heimat* (2003), as Beutler
- *Nachtschicht* (2003), series, as André Eggers
- *Voll korrekte Jungs* (2002), as Herr Fischer
- *Tödliches Vertrauen* (2002), as Gerichtsmediziner
- *Big Girls Don't Cry* (2002), as Jost, Katis Vater
- *Das Duo* (2002), series, as Heinrich von Laatzen
- *99€ Films* (2001), Actor
- *Die Biester* (2001), series, as Herr Senne
- *Einsatz in Hamburg* (2000), series, as Achim Ohlsen
- *Donna Leon* (2000), series, as Davide Mitri
- *Schimanski* (1997), series, as Martin Krawe
- *Doppelter Einsatz* (1994), series, as Jochen Michelsen
- *Barmherzige Schwestern* (1993), as Assistenzarzt
- *Pfarrers Kinder, Müllers Vieh* (1991), series, as Manfred
- *Ein Prachtexemplar* (1989), as Zivi
- *Polizeiruf 110* (1971), series, as Hanns von Meuffels, Kriminalhauptkommissar Hanns von Meuffels, Hans von Meuffels
- *Scene of the Crime* (1970), series, as Wolf Dieter Hübner, Christian Peintner, Bestatter, Stefan Gärtner, Employee, Tristan Grünfels

## Gallery

- ![Matthias Brandt](https://film.one/media/person/16041/gallery-a5ba79fd503d.jpg) Matthias Brandt — Matthias_Brandt_o.jpg: Siebbi
derivative work: Sitacuisses, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Matthias_Brandt_o_cropped.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![BR,Bayerischer Rundfunk,Bayerisches Fernsehen,Filmbrunch 2016,Matthias Brandt](https://film.one/media/person/16041/gallery-966bd97623fc.jpg) BR,Bayerischer Rundfunk,Bayerisches Fernsehen,Filmbrunch 2016,Matthias Brandt — Stefan Brending (2eight), CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/2016_Matthias_Brandt_-_by_2eight_-_8SC2359.jpg/1280px-2016_Matthias_Brandt_-_by_2eight_-_8SC2359.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Die Besetzung von "Ein Mann ein Fjord" bei der Premiere in Berlin: Jürgen Tarrach, Olga von Luckwald, Anneke Kim Sarnau, Petra Zieser, Matthias Brandt, Gabi Dec (2008)](https://film.one/media/person/16041/gallery-303e764c30d7.jpg) Die Besetzung von "Ein Mann ein Fjord" bei der Premiere in Berlin: Jürgen Tarrach, Olga von Luckwald, Anneke Kim Sarnau, Petra Zieser, Matthias Brandt, Gabi Dec (2008) — Leut, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Ein_mann_ein_fjord.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Matthias Brandt und Christian Schwochow bei der Grimme-Preis-Verleihung 2015](https://film.one/media/person/16041/gallery-1783d1641899.jpg) Matthias Brandt und Christian Schwochow bei der Grimme-Preis-Verleihung 2015 — JCS, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Grimme-Preis_2015_-_Brandt_Schwochow_1.JPG/1280px-Grimme-Preis_2015_-_Brandt_Schwochow_1.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Matthias Brandt bei der Verleihung des Grimme-Preises 2014.](https://film.one/media/person/16041/gallery-110edf70f340.jpg) Matthias Brandt bei der Verleihung des Grimme-Preises 2014. — Krd, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Grimmepreis_2014_080.jpg/1280px-Grimmepreis_2014_080.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Matthias Brandt und Volker Bouffier beim Hessischen Film- und Kinopreis 2018](https://film.one/media/person/16041/gallery-41039d11c36b.jpg) Matthias Brandt und Volker Bouffier beim Hessischen Film- und Kinopreis 2018 — JCS, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Hessischer_Filmpreis_2018_-_Matthias_Brandt_-_Volker_Bouffier_1.JPG/1280px-Hessischer_Filmpreis_2018_-_Matthias_Brandt_-_Volker_Bouffier_1.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Other awards — 6 won, 1 nominated

- Deutscher Sprachpreis 2025: Deutscher Sprachpreis (won)
- Carl Zuckmayer Medal 2024: Carl Zuckmayer Medal (won)
- Günter Rohrbach film award 2023: Günter Rohrbach film award (won), for *Afire*
- Deutscher Fernsehpreis 2021: Deutscher Fernsehpreis (nominated), for *We Would Be Different*
- Bavarian TV Awards 2015: Bavarian TV Awards (won), for *A Faithful Husband*
- Bavarian TV Awards 2012: Bavarian TV Awards (won), for *Polizeiruf 110: Denn sie wissen nicht, was sie tun*
- Bavarian TV Awards 2006: Bavarian TV Awards (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/matthias-brandt