Career
Mattes was featured in four films directed by director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Jail Bait, Effi Briest and In a Year of 13 Moons). In A Manitoba Called Eva (Ein Mann wie EVA, 1984), she played a bearded film director, based on the recently deceased Fassbinder. She has also appeared in two films of Werner Herzog, a former partner.
In 1980 they had a daughter together, Hanna Mattes.
Eva Mattes is well known in German-speaking countries for her role as Klara Blum in the Tatort television series.