@pzimmer The code you provided is for different MDB product - MDB Standard, for MDB5 Angular please use the code from this documentation: https://mdbootstrap.com/docs/b5/angular/components/modal/

If you don't want to create a new component you can use ModalService to open content of ng-template. Here is a simple example:

HTML:

    <ng-template #template>
      <div class="modal-header">
        <h5 class="modal-title" id="exampleModalLabel">Modal from template</h5>
        <button type="button" class="btn-close" aria-label="Close" (click)="templateModalRef.close()"></button>
      </div>
      <div class="modal-body">...</div>
      <div class="modal-footer">
        <button type="button" class="btn btn-secondary" (click)="templateModalRef.close()">Close</button>
        <button type="button" class="btn btn-primary">Save changes</button>
      </div>
    </ng-template>

    <button type="button" class="btn btn-primary" (click)="openModalFromTemplate()">
      Launch demo modal
    </button>

TS:

  @ViewChild('template') modalTemplate: TemplateRef<any>;

  templateModalRef: MdbModalRef<TemplateRef<any>> | null = null;

  openModalFromTemplate() {
    this.templateModalRef = this._modalService.open(this.modalTemplate);
  }