She went on the Rudolf Steiner School in Freiburg but ended with only a limited education but she later studied Greek and Latin.

[citation needed] After this movie many film offers came from West Germany and Sutter was thus one of the few artists of her time, which worked on two German territories.

Her big breakthrough came in 1957 with Lissy, an award-winning movie, which gave Sonja Sutter a certain notoriety in East Germany.

In 1961 she lost, , the opportunity to participate in further DEFA films related with the construction of the Berlin Wall[citation needed] From 1961 until her death, she lived in Vienna and worked at the Burgtheater.

[citation needed] Sutter died on 1 June 2017 in Baden bei Wien, Austria, at the age of 86.