Paula Hartmann: Actress, Singer & Lawyer | Bio & Career

“Originally I wanted to study medicine”

As if film and music didn’t keep you busy enough, you completed your law studies with a Bachelor of Laws at the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg in the spring. How did you come to study law, of all things?

That was a spontaneous decision. Actually, since I was six years old, I was absolutely convinced that I wanted to study medicine. At that time my grandparents fell ill. And as a small child I resolved to cure humanity of cancer or AIDS.

But when I held the relevant registration forms in my hands after graduating from high school, it felt somehow wrong. So I applied to law school. I saw the difficult selection process as a challenge and definitely wanted to pass it. Of course, I was asked this question in the interview. I hadn’t even thought about it beforehand. I spontaneously answered that I have always liked working with words. I liked using the weight of words correctly. And I also mentioned my strong sense of justice.

“Studying law opened the door to music for me”

Then your studies started, but instead of studying, you started your music career on the side. Your highly acclaimed first album “Nie in love” was released in 2022, which stayed in the top 100 of the German charts for at least three weeks.

Yes, I found the first few weeks at university terrible. There were fellow students who went to the library on the first day of their studies. It wasn’t for me.

It was therefore very convenient for me that I met people in Hamburg with whom I could make music professionally. In a way, studying law opened the door to music for me: I wanted to take every opportunity to do something other than just sit in the library in this city, which was new to me.

But in order to pass exams, did you have to study a bit?

Yes, of course, I did when it mattered. I never had the best grades, but I always got through somehow. Curiously, the more music I played, the more I enjoyed studying law. Because it became a bit of a minor matter, I didn’t necessarily have to prove myself. Nevertheless, I say today: I’m not done with law yet.

“I still want to take my exams and I would find it exciting to do a doctorate”

Not finished yet? Can you imagine working in a legal profession one day?

I can pretty much rule out a “normal” law firm path, but you can do a lot with a law degree. I would like to take the first state examination first and maybe also do my doctorate.

And in which area of ​​law would you do your doctorate? Maybe in criminal law? Legal questions surrounding the arrest warrant process? After all, you also made music with the rapper arrest warrant.

Absolutely not in criminal law. I always had a great feeling about the exams, but I never got more than five points. My focus was labor law.

My professor Matthias Jakobs was always very understanding of my job as a musician. I also liked his practical teaching style. For example, we attended negotiations at the labor court, visited companies and heard presentations by employer and employee representatives. I found it very exciting, even though some of it will probably never affect me. I have never been employed and, as of now, I probably never will be.

Otherwise, I would also be interested in everything legal related to music and acting. I can also imagine advising other artists later. I recently found GEMA’s lawsuit against ChatGPT very exciting because of the infringement of music authors’ copyrights. That could also happen to me with my songs.

“First check and weigh everything up”

Does your legal knowledge occasionally help you in the music business? For example with the contracts?

That’s what I thought at first. But in reality you are not prepared for these types of contracts during your studies. In my first contract, it felt like every third word was “standard in the industry”. My legal knowledge was of no use to me if we agreed on what was standard in the industry and my opposing party knew what that was and I, at just 19, unfortunately didn’t.

But I benefited from Jura as a singer: I was able to further develop my passion for words at university and take it with me into my music. And of course I have internalized legal thinking: first check and weigh everything up. When I have to make decisions, including in everyday life, I always first consider what speaks against it. Sometimes this can be an advantage.

You sing about nightlife with all its dark sides. The song “3 seconds”which you recorded with the singer Céline, is about sexual harassment, the experiences of young women in clubs and alone on the way home. Do the lyrics also reflect your reality?

Yes, some lines of my part in the song are super autobiographical, except it wasn’t a club.

“Women must be better protected – also in the Criminal Code”

You have probably heard about the case of Yanni Gentsch from Cologne. While she was jogging in February, a man riding a bike filmed her bottom. The police then informed her that the man’s behavior was not a criminal offense. Federal Minister of Justice Hubig has announced that it would create a new criminal offense for such harassment in public spaces. Right?

Yes, I believe that there are still some gaps in our legal system when it comes to protecting women. And I would also include this case constellation. I don’t know why it shouldn’t be punishable if a strange man films my butt while I’m jogging – with the proven intention of sexually arousing myself.

But it doesn’t just have to be criminal law: in Japan, where I did a trimester abroad, cell phones always make a loud noise when you use the camera. You can’t mute them. This was a measure against “upskirting.

Appearance at “Jamel rocks the forester”

The Goethe Institute described your songs as “politically modern fairy tales from the big city”. Your performance at the anti-Nazi festival “Jamel rocks the Förster” this summer in the ethnically populated Jamel in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was a political statement. You came on stage wearing a black hoodie, metaphorically giving the middle finger to the right-wing extremist neighborhood. The audience was thrilled. But the discussion of right-wing extremism doesn’t play such a big role in your songs.

I don’t rule out the possibility of making this the subject of a song one day. So far, in this context, I haven’t had access to anything that I found artistically valuable.

Otherwise, I speak out clearly against right-wing activities on social media and on stage between songs. But you really have to be careful. My statements about AfD voters at a concert in Hamburg this summer were widely misquoted by journalists and the content was reversed. That annoys me.

Cooperation with “Arrest Warrant”

You make music with other rappers*, like T-Low (“Say something”) or even an arrest warrant (“Smell of coke”). How important are such collaborative works to you – even with artists who have not undergone such a protected socialization as you?

Very important. What counts is musical respect and empathy – especially when you are so different. The unexpected collaborations in particular often had the most surprising results.

I asked T-Low for a song on my album after seeing his honest, unfiltered interviews. The song with him is one of my favorites and he has become one of my favorite colleagues.

And Aykut (“Arrest Warrant”) asked me for his album “Mainpark Baby” because he really liked my song “Truman Show Boot”. Working with him was a lot of fun. He is a gifted artist.

Speaking of which: almost all of your fellow rappers have stage names. You, on the other hand, also use your real name as an artist. Never thought about changing that?

But already. And sometimes I think it would be cool to hide behind an artist name, also because then you could separate private things and music even better. I’ve also thought about changing my last name and I actually sometimes talk about “Paula Hartmann” in the third person, which my parents or friends find somewhat strange.

But nonetheless, I don’t regret the decision. It was suitable for my music project. When I walked in there at 18, I wanted to make it clear: “Hey, that’s me, Paula Hartmann.”

Thank you for the conversation!

*Editor’s note: Shortly after the interview was conducted, on Thursday, November 20th, 2025, Paula Hartmann released the song “Opposite of happiness“.

Paula Hartmann was born in Berlin in 2001 and works as an actress and singer. Since 2007 she has appeared in numerous films and television productions. As a singer, she has released two studio albums so far, for which she has won various awards, most recently the Pop Culture Award in the categories Favorite Album and Favorite Band in April 2025. In May 2025, she completed her law studies at the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg with a Bachelor of Laws.