Maria Furtwängler

Furtwängler is the great-niece and step-granddaughter of the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler. She grew up in middle-class circumstances with her parents. The father Bernhard Furtwängler was an architect, the mother Kathrin Ackermann was an actress. At the age of eight, she appeared in front of the camera for the first time in the film "Zum Farewell Chrysanthemums", directed by her uncle Florian Furtwängler. She received her early acting training from her mother, Kathrin Ackermann, and from Elionor Hofmann. After finishing school with a high school diploma, Furtwängler studied human medicine, received her doctorate and practiced as a doctor in Munich. However, she quickly found her way back to her passion, acting. Maria Furtwängler became known to a wide TV audience in the successful series "The Happy Family".

She was seen here from 1987 to 1990 in the role of "Katja" alongside Maria Schell and Siegfried Rauch. Meanwhile, in 1991 she married the publisher Dr. Hubert Burda. The marriage produced a son and a daughter in 1990 and 1992. In 1995, Maria Furtwängler played in the relationship comedy "Three Women and (no) a Man". From 1996 she starred in the pediatrician series "Hello, Uncle Doc!" in front of the TV camera. In the same year she played Walter Sitter's wife in the family series "Two to Fall in Love" and "Lust auf Liebe" alongside Peter Sattmann. This was followed by comedies, TV series, romantic melodramas and roles in crime series such as "Der Alte", "Fahnder" and "Siska", in which she was able to continue to assert herself. From 1997 to 1998 the production "Cape of Good Hope" and "Herzflimmern" based on the book by Barbara Wood were directed by Dieter Kehler. The melodrama "Dir zu Liebe" from 1999, directed by Hans Werner, received great attention. Another successful production was created with Furtwängler in 2000 under the title "The Eighth Deadly Sin - Ghost Hunt". In it she played the head of a police department that was investigating a cigarette smuggler.

The romantic melodrama "Happiness is an Island" followed in the same year. In 2001 she received the role of chief detective "Charlotte Lindholm" in the renowned TV crime series "Tatort" on ARD. In 2002 she was awarded the Jupiter Prize from the cinema magazine "Cinema" as the most successful television film of the year for the "Tatort" "Lastrumer Misch". The marital drama "Too Close to the Fire" with Michael Mendel followed in the same year. It told the story of a woman who risked her relationship with an affair. Maria Furtwängler also made a name for herself through the numerous social projects she supported. The focus of their work is the fight against cancer, violence against children and the fight against disease and poverty in the Third World. In 2003, Maria Furtwängler was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for her commitment to the aid organization "Doctors for the Third World".

Maria Furtwängler was awarded the Siegfied Lowitz Prize in 2005 for her theater and acting.