Born and raised in East Berlin, she had to leave school after the tenth grade and prove herself in the realities of socialist daily life. She trained as a psychiatric nurse and worked as a model for VHB EXQUISIT and the fashion magazine *SIBYLLE*. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, she completed her university entrance qualification and studied philosophy at Humboldt University of Berlin before transferring to the Film University Babelsberg to study directing. Her body of work encompasses feature films, documentaries, and numerous television productions in which Goette focuses primarily on people in extraordinary life situations—fearlessly illuminating the darker sides of the human experience, while remaining visually inventive and socially relevant.

For six years, Aelrun Goette volunteered to support inmates at the Plötzensee women’s prison in Berlin. This work led to her documentary debut, *Ohne Bewährung – Psychogramm einer Mörderin* (Robert Geisendörfer Prize), created during her first year of university. She made her theatrical feature debut with *Die Kinder sind tot*, based on a real-life family tragedy (German Film Award in Gold). With *Unter dem Eis*, she realized her first feature film for the cinema (MFG-Star, Grimme Award).

Acclaimed television projects followed: the *Tatort* episode *Der glückliche Tod*, dealing with the subject of assisted dying; the award-winning TV movie *Keine Angst* (Grimme Award), about a girl from a disadvantaged social background; *Die elegante Lösung* (starring Senta Berger), concerning migration flows at Europe’s borders (Marl Human Rights Award); and *Ein Jahr nach morgen*, about a school shooting (Günther Rohrbach Film Prize).

Her most personal work to date is *In einem Land, das es nicht mehr gibt* (2022), which is based on true events from the GDR fashion scene and the circle surrounding the magazine *SIBYLLE*. The screenplay was awarded the Spreewald Literature Grant; the film enjoyed a successful theatrical run and won the Günther Rohrbach Film Prize as well as the German Film Award for Best Supporting Actress (Jördis Triebel). In 2026, she is producing the crime drama *Nord bei Nordost – Jagd in die Vergangenheit*; she is currently working with Neue Bioskop Leipzig on the feature film *Palucca 2.0*—about the dancer Gret Palucca—and with Kundschafter Film on the miniseries *Harte Schule*. Goette is an honorary member of the alumni association of the Film University Babelsberg “Konrad Wolf,” serves on the board of the German Film Academy, and lives with her family in Berlin.