Werner Schroeter was born on April 7, 1945, in Georgenthal (Thuringia), and grew up in Bielefeld and Heidelberg. In 1966, he began studying psychology in Mannheim, completing three semesters before passing the entrance exam for the University of Television and Film in Munich. However, he left the school after only a few weeks. 

In December 1967, he traveled to the experimental film festival EXPRMTL 4 in Knokke, Belgium, where he presented one of his 8mm films. There he met Rosa von Praunheim, with whom he lived for several years and co-created the film "Gotesk Burlesk Pittoresk". Dividing his time between his family home in Heidelberg and his Berlin residence (with von Praunheim), Schroeter produced a number of films in 1968: initially short 8mm études, then two full-length 16mm works – "Neurasia" and "Argila". Both were enthusiastically received at the 1969 Hamburg Film Showcase. That same year, Schroeter achieved a breakthrough with his third feature, "Eika Katappa", which won the Josef von Sternberg Prize at the International Film Week in Mannheim. 

Schroeter’s cinematic style was memorably described by culture journalist Alfred Nemeczek in 1980: Schroeter "dispenses with plot, instead stringing together scenic highlights from poetry, history, and myth without transition. Hours of nothing but rapture and ecstasy, nothing but death, farewell, love madness, despair." Schroeter worked closely with a regular ensemble of performers, including Carla Aulaulu, Ellen Umlauf, and later Christine Kaufmann – and, above all, Magdalena Montezuma (born Erika Kluge), whom he had met as a teenager. Montezuma appeared in all his films until her death in 1984. 

From the early 1970s onward, many of his films – some made during extended stays abroad, particularly in Italy – were primarily funded by television, especially the ZDF editorial department "Das kleine Fernsehspiel". In a 1980 interview, Schroeter explained: “I have a cassette tape recorder, a few dress shirts and a jacket, four or five books... I usually stay with friends. When I work, I move from hotel to hotel, because it would be too much to ask someone to live with me during that time.” 

Beginning with "Regno di Napoli / Neapolitanische Geschwister" ("The Kingdom of Naples," 1978), his films began to follow more conventional narrative structures and returned to cinemas – sometimes with significant success. "Regno di Napoli" received the German Film Award and gained international recognition. Two years later, Schroeter won the Golden Bear at the 1980 Berlinale for his guest-worker drama "Palermo oder Wolfsburg" ("Palermo or Wolfsburg"). In France especially, cinephiles celebrated Schroeter – who wrote his own scripts and, until the late 1970s, also handled the camera and editing on nearly all his films – as a major auteur. He occasionally acted in other directors' films, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder ("Welt am Draht"/"World On A Wire", "Berlin Alexanderplatz") and Herbert Achternbusch ("Das Gespenst"/"The Ghost"). 

In addition to filmmaking, Schroeter began working in theater in 1972 and started directing operas at German and Italian opera houses from 1979 onward. His bold interpretations of classical works, often featuring his regular actors, were frequently controversial. Notable productions include "Emilia Galotti" (Hamburg, 1972); "Salome" (1973); "Lucrecia Borgia" (1974); "Fräulein Julie" (1977); and "Das Käthchen von Heilbronn" (1978) under Peter Zadek’s artistic direction in Bochum. In March 1980, Schroeter staged a show with Ingrid Caven in Paris. In May 1982, his production of Schiller’s "Don Carlos" at the Schauspielhaus Frankfurt caused a stir – after the opening line of Schiller’s drama, the play morphed into a performance of Pirandello’s "Tonight We Improvise." 

From the mid-1980s on, the gaps between Schroeter’s films grew longer. However, when he released new work, it was always eagerly received by critics and cinephiles. His 1991 adaptation of Ingeborg Bachmann’s "Malina", starring Isabelle Huppert, premiered in Cannes and went on to win the German Film Award for both "Best Film" and "Best Director." His next film, the poetic documentary "Poussières d’amour" ("Love's Debris"), followed six years later and won the German Film Critics’ Prize. 

After another long pause, Schroeter returned to the screen in 2008 with "Une nuit de chien / Diese Nacht" ("This Night"), an adaptation of a story by Juan Carlos Onetti, which premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival. There, Schroeter was honored with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. In February 2010, he received the Teddy Award for lifetime achievement at the Berlinale, and in March, the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Film Award in his hometown of Bielefeld. 

On April 12, 2010, just a few days after his 65th birthday, Werner Schroeter died in Kassel from complications related to cancer.