Edgar Reitz was born in Morbach/Hunsrueck in 1932. After school graduation, he studied Literature, Journalism and Drama in Munich. Parallel to this, he attended acting classes and made his first attempts at literature. He has worked as a production assistant, dramaturge, cameraman and film editor. In 1962, Reitz was one of the signatories of the «Oberhausen Manifesto». Together with Alexander Kluge and Detten Schleiermacher, he founded the Institute for Film Design at the College of Design in Ulm, where he worked as a lecturer in Camera, Dramaturgy and Montage from 1963 onwards.

Since 1966, Reitz has realized and produced his own feature films. He has received several German Film Awards, including for his film Zero Hour (Stunde Null) in 1977. Since 1995, he has been a professor of film at the State College of Design in Karlsruhe. He worked on his epochal cycle Heimat from 1980 onwards. The completion of the third part of this cycle means it now has a length of 53 hours; Heimat 3 celebrated its premiere at the "Mostra" in Venice in 2004.

A selection of his other films includes: Schicksal einer Oper (short film with Bernhard Doerries, 1958), Kommunikation (short, 1961), Geschwindigkeit (short, 1962), Lust for Love (Mahlzeiten, 1967), Cardillac (1969), Die Reise nach Wien (1973), Germany in Autumn (Deutschland in Herbst, co-author, co-director, 1978), The Tailor from Ulm (Der Schneider von Ulm, 1978), Geschichten aus den Hunsrueckdoerfern (1981), Die zweite Heimat (1988-1992), and The Night of the Filmmakers (Die Nacht der Regisseure, 1995).

Source: German Films Service & Marketing GmbH