The son of a manufacturer received training as an editor and became an assistant director at SDR in Stuttgart in 1954. He later worked there as a television director and at the end of the 1950s followed Helmut Jedele to Bavaria Film near Munich.

From 1959 to 1963 he was chief director, after which he worked as a freelancer. With his innovative shows, he soon became Germany's best-known television director. In 1967 he directed the award-winning music television special A Man and His Music plus Ella plus Jobim for Frank Sinatra, starring Ella Fitzgerald and Antônio Carlos Jobim, in the United States.