Ignite the mirror neurons like a firework! Create utopias! Support democracy! Theatre has many tasks for Katharina Schmalenberg. She studied acting at the Leipzig University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" until 1998 and has since been engaged at Theater Basel, Deutsches Theater Berlin, and Schauspiel Köln. She has also appeared as a guest at the Burgtheater Vienna, Thalia Theater in Hamburg, and the Salzburg Festival, among others. In 1999, Theater heute named her Young Actress of the Year, and in 2002, Schmalenberg opened the new Schauspielhaus in Basel as Hamlet. She also works as a narrator for radio and author readings. For her, theatre is about nothing less than love, politics, and death.