Wolfgang Kohlhaase was born in Berlin on March 13th 1931. Following his school graduation, he started out as a journalist working for several East-German newspapers before moving on to the DEFA. From 1952 on, he worked as a freelance author and scriptwriter.

His breakthrough came with a series of neo-realist films directed by Gerhard Klein: Labelled "Berlin-Films", they dealt with the lives of young people growing up in the divided city. The other collaborations of Kohlhaase and Klein included the historical drama "Der Fall Gleiwitz" and "Berlin um die Ecke" ("Berlin Around the Corner") – which due to state interference was completed in 1987, almost 20 years after production started.

In 1967, the anti-fascist war drama "Ich war neunzehn" ("I Was Nineteen") marked the beginning of the long-lasting creative partnership between Kohlhaase and director Konrad Wolf. Till Wolf's death in 1982, they collaborated on films as diverse as "Der nackte Mann auf dem Sportplatz" and "Solo Sunny".

Kohlhaase, who had also been writing radio plays since the 1960's, adapted Hermann Kant's autobiographical novel "Der Aufenthalt" ("The Turning Point") for a motion picture directed by Frank Beyer, who also helmed the Kohlhaase-scripted "Der Bruch" and with whom the author continued to work after the fall of the Berlin wall.

In the 1990s, Kohlhaase predominately worked for television, including high-profile projects like "Der Hauptmann von Köpenick". At the end of the decade, her returned to the screen with script for Volker Schlöndorff's acclaimed "Die Stille nach dem Schuss" ("The Legends of Rita"), which tells the story of a female Red Army Fraction terrorist hiding in the GDR.

This was followed in 2004 by the screenplay for Andreas Dresen's arthouse success "Sommer vorm Balkon" ("Summer in Berlin"), which won awards at the San Sebastián Film Festival and the German Film Critics' Prize. In 2007 Kohlhaase and Dresen cooperated again successfully on the comedy "Whisky mit Wodka" ("Whisky with Vodka"), in which Henry Hübchen as an ageing actor who is not averse to women and alcohol has to fight to avoid being sidelined. In the same year, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon.

Kohlhaase wrote the tragicomedy "Haus und Kind" (2009, TV) for Andreas Kleinert, about a metropolitan couple (Stefan Kurt and Marie Bäumer) whose attempt to lead a carefree life in the country is hampered by all kinds of adversity - some of it self-inflicted. The film received several awards, including the one-time Screenplay Award at the Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

At the Berlin IFF 2010, Kohlhaase received the Golden Honorary Bear, and the following year the Association of German Screenwriters (Verband deutscher Drehbuchautoren - VDD) named him an honorary member. Also in 2011, he was awarded the Honorary Award for Outstanding Services to German Film at the German Film Awards.

Kohlhaase's next screenplay was about an unusual, intercultural love affair: "I Phone You" ("I Phone Y(o)u", DE/CN 2011) tells the story of a young Chinese woman who wants to see a Chinese businessman living in Berlin again, but then falls in love with his German bodyguard. For his next cinema project, the novel adaptation "Als wir träumten" ("As We Were Dreaming", 2015), Kohlhaase again worked with Andreas Dresen as director. The story focuses on the experiences of a clique of young friends in Leipzig shortly after the end of the GDR. The film premiered in the competition of the 2015 Berlin IFF and was released in cinemas shortly afterwards. In May 2015, Wolfgang Kohlhaase was awarded the honorary prize "Goldener Ochse" (a reference to the coat of arms of Mecklenburg) at the Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Only two years later, "In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts" ("In Times of Fading Light") by Matti Geschonneck also premiered at the Berlin IFF. The story about an extended East Berlin family that falls apart parallel to the fall of the GDR is based on a novel by Eugen Ruge and was to be Kohlhaase's last screenplay work. In 2020, the feature film "Persischstunden" ("Persian Lessons", RU/DE/BY, directed by Vadim Perelman), based on Kohlhaase's story "Erfindung einer Sprache" ("Invention of a Language"), was released in German cinemas. In it, a Belgian Jew tries to survive the concentration camp by pretending to be Persian - and subsequently has to reinvent a language to disguise his ignorance of Farsi.

In addition to his work as a screenwriter, Kohlhaase gave courses on screenwriting at various universities. He was a member of the PEN Centre Germany and was admitted to the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of the Arts in 1991. In 2021 he received the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin.

Wolfgang Kohlhaase lived in Berlin with his wife, the dancer and choreographer Emöke Pöstenyi. He died there on 5 October 2022 aged 91.