Herbert Achternbusch, born November 23, 1938, in Munich, wanted to become a painter and poet after finishing secondary school. But from 1960 to 1962, he consecutively studied at Pädagogische Hochschule München-Pasing, at Nuremberg"s Kunstakademie, and for three semesters at Munich"s Akademie der Bildenden Künste instead. Then, from 1962 on, Achternbusch worked in several jobs before colleagues and friends such as Martin Walser advised him to become a writer rather than a painter.

In 1969, Suhrkamp published "Hülle", a collection of stories, Achternbusch"s first publication of meanwhile more than 50 books. Shortly after the publication, Achternbusch started to make films on substandard film and became part of the German auteur film scene. Achternbusch then played parts in films by Werner Herzog and Volker Schlöndorff and wrote the screen play to Herzog"s "Herz aus Glas" ("Heart of Glass").

In 1974, Achternbusch made his first feature film: "Das Andechser Gefühl" featured Margarethe von Trotta who developed the screen play with him and Achternbusch himself in the leading parts. Achternbusch also starred in the leading roles of his following films. More and more, the versatile artist became a provocative maverick of the established culture scene and is also a disputed figure of the film scene: In 1977, he burned the "Petrarca" prize right after receiving it from the hands of Peter Handke. Six years later, his film "Das Gespenst" ("The Ghost") caused a nationwide scandal because of his disrespectful portrait of Jesus. Since then, the film artist is consistently ignored by all promotion boards. As a consequence, Achternbusch had to shoot his following films on Super-8 which was later transferred to 35 millimetres. From the mid-1990s on, Achternbusch has made less and less films.

Herbert Achternbusch is the father of four children. Since 1975, he is living with his wife Gerda in Buchendorf.