Manfred Stelzer was born in Augsburg in 1944. After training as a chemical laboratory technician, he moved to Berlin in 1966. His first contacts to the film world came through the student movement of 1968. In 1971, he began to study at the Academy of Film and Television in Berlin. Here he made his first documentary works, some together with Reiner Maerz and Susanne Beierlein. These included "Der Monarch", for which he received the German Film Prize in 1979.

He continued to make documentary works as well as feature films well into the 80s. However, since 1986 he has worked only in the fictional field for both cinema and television. His feature films include: "Perle der Karibik" (1980); "Schwarzfahrer" (1982); "Die Chinesen" (1986); "Himmelsheim" (1988) and "Superstau" (1990). He has also directed several episodes of the TV series "Polizeiruf 110".

Source: German Films Service & Marketing GmbH