He was so impressed that he decided to stay on, starting an exceptional career as an acclaimed cabaret comedian, also acting in a highly successful Polish TV soap opera. Once a German language teacher in Warsaw, Steffen Möller is now Poland's most celebrated and popular German national - along with the Pope.Steffen Möller was born in Wuppertal in 1969, the eldest of three brothers. His father Christian was a theology professor, and his mother Sigrun taught religious studies. Even during his schooldays Steffen Möller was involved in the school cabaret. He parodied teachers and was known as the class clown. After his final year of high-school and his compulsory military service, Möller moved to Berlin to study theology and philosophy at the Berlin Free University. Just for fun, he took a Polish language course in Krakow in 1993. Möller fell in love with the language and moved permanently to Warsaw in 1994, after he’d finished his degree. Today he sees the Polish capital, along with Wuppertal, as his home.

Once in Poland, Steffen Möller started working as a German teacher. He found decent German textbooks hard to come by, so he ended up writing a lot of the texts for his lessons himself. Most of them were funny takes on day-to-day life in Poland from a German perspective. The texts became the cornerstone of his first Polish-language stand-up comedy program, which debuted in Krakow in June 2001. In 2002, he won second place in the national comedy competition "PAKA" in Krakow. His television debut came soon afterwards, which led to a spot on the infotainment show "Europe can be likeable", in which five foreigners try and outdo each other telling stories about their countries.

Steffen Möller’s comedy show also caught the eye of the producers of the successful soap opera "L for Love", which has an audience of up to ten million. He’s been playing the part of Stefan Müller the potato farmer since 2003. His portrayal of the naive loser -- unlucky in love but always friendly and helpful -- has changed the Polish view of Germany. Steffen Möller shows the softer side of the German stereotype, and has become a television superstar. In 2004 he won Poland’s highest TV accolade, the "Telekamera" prize. The German government also awarded him the Federal Cross of Merit in June 2005 for his contribution to German-Polish relations: an honor which means a great deal to him.

Ever since his big break, Steffen Möller has become a "professional German". In Poland, he’s considered an expert on all things German, and he’s even in demand as a spokesperson for German products. In Germany, he’s considered an expert on all things Polish.

Steffen Möller’s book about his experiences living and working as a foreigner in Poland, called "Viva Polonia: als deutscher Gastarbeiter in Polen", became a best-seller in Germany when it was published in German in 2008. This spring, Möller’s cabaret show will be touring Germany.