After school he trained to become a heavy plate boiler maker and later studied engineering and psychology in Dresden, graduating from university as "Engineer-Pedagogue".

[1] After his studies, he completed a public actor's training and started his professional career as a political cabaret artist in Dresden's "Herkuleskeule" club.

[2] Stumph achieved his breakthrough as an actor shortly after the German reunification with the 1991 comedic film Go Trabi Go.

[2][3] Go Trabi Go was a major hit in the time shortly after the reunification of Germany and drew crowds in both parts of Germany; critics said the film was a way for East Germans to "laugh not precisely at themselves, but at the absurdities of the system under which they lived until last year".

[4] After the film, which was followed by a sequel in 1992, Stumph began his first step to a later extensive cooperation with the ZDF, the second German public TV channel.