He was the Left Party's nominee for the 2009 presidential election, but was not considered a serious candidate by the German media.
In 1991 he first appeared in his most famous screen role, Police Commissioner Bruno Ehrlicher, in the long-running crime series Tatort.
From 2007 he starred in a traveling act "Ost-West-Vis-à-Vis" with CDU politician and former Labor Minister Norbert Blüm.
[2] On 13 October 2008, the Left Party's Bundestag delegation nominated Sodann as their candidate for the 2009 presidential election.
[5] As an actor-turned-politician, the German media compared him (usually as a criticism) to Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger.