Shermin Langhoff has been the artistic director of the Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin since 2013. Over her tenure, the Gorki has been voted »Theatre of the Year« by the German-speaking critics twice and was among the first recipients of the Theaterpreis des Bundes, an award from the federal government. Numerous Gorki productions have received both national and international honours.
In 2008 Langhoff founded the Ballhaus Naunynstraße in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, where she served as artistic director until 2012 and established the concept of post-migrant theatre with her work. During this period Ballhaus Naunynstraße was voted »Off-Theatre of the Year«.
Shermin Langhoff has received several awards for her work and public service. In 2011 she received the KAIROS European culture prize for her work as a cultural mentor, and the same year the Helga and Edzard Reuter Foundation honoured her for notable achievements in the field of understanding between cultures. In 2012 she received the Moses Mendelssohn Prize from the Berlin government. She was presented with the Theodor Heuss Medal in 2014. In 2017 she was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit).
For the beginning of her tenure in 2013, Langhoff initiated – inspired by Herwarth Walden’s first and final »Deutscher Herbstsalon« in 1913 – the first Berliner Herbstsalon (Berlin Autumn Salon) as an interdisciplinary biennial connecting the visual and performing arts. Over the seven editions held between 2013 and 2025, Langhoff has focused on scrutinizing, from different perspectives, hegemonic constructions of identity, unity, origins and nation, as well as spotlighting a historiography of the many. With the 7th Berliner Herbstsalon, Langhoff launches her final season at the Gorki.
