Joachim Hellwig was born March 31, 1932 in Birnbaum (today: Międzychód, Poland). He already worked as a projectionist during his time at school. After his graduation, he started to work as a unit manager for Phönix Film in Berlin and was employed at DEFA's dubbing department from 1950 on. From 1952 to 1954, he worked as a unit manager and assistant director at DEFA-Studio for popular scientific films. Subsequently, Hellwig got a permanent position as a director at DEFA-Studio für Wochenschau und Dokumentarfilme.

Hellwig's first documentary film as a director was "Glückliche Kinder" (1954). He subsequently finished the documentary films "Um den Menschen" (1956) about a country doctor, "Die Bilder von Dresden" (1956) about the destruction of Dresden in 1945, a film that was also shown at the Edinburgh international film festival, and "Synthese" (1957) about the architecture of Berlin's new broadcast studio.

Hellwig received a lot of credit in the GDR as well as internationally for his film "Ein Tagebuch für Anne Frank" (1959). The short documentary film dealt with the technology of the mass murder by the Nazis using the example of Anne Frank and demonstrated that countless murderers still lived undisturbed in Federal Germany. In its general view, the production completely corresponded with the strategy of the Socialist Unity Party. It attacked the administration of Federal Germany and polemically contrasted both parts of Germany with each other.

Hellwig further investigated the links between capitalism and National Socialism, for instance, in "Der Fall Heusinger" (1959) that dealt with the career of the former Nazi general Adolf Heusinger and his later appointment to the inspector general of the Bundeswehr and to the position of a NATO general. With his documentary film "So macht man Kanzler" (1961), he created a contemporary document of the Cold War. The confrontation of the political careers of Adolf Hitler and of Konrad Adenauer that was supposed to prove that German history was riddled by reactionary, industrialist forces, aimed to legitimize East German politics in the era of the construction of the Berlin Wall.

"Der schwarze Stein" (1965), a praise for Communism that deals with the rebuilding of Ghana, was done with the teachings of Karl Marx in mind. "Protokoll für Einen" (1966) tells the story of the persecution and execution of Communist Rudolf Hallmeyer by the Nazis, and "Erzählungen aus der Neuen Welt" ("Tales from the New World", 1968) deals with the importance of the Communist Manifesto.

Hellwig won the GDR artistic price (in the collective) for his film "Hier bin ich Mensch" (1970). He also won the same award for his film "Wer die Erde liebt" (1973). The documentary film essay, a commissioned work, represents celebrations, discussions, ceremonies, solidarity meetings, and the visits of foreign guests of honor during the 10th World Festival of Youth in Students in the German Democratic Republic in 1973.

Besides his work as a director for DEFA, Hellwig also studied literature by distance learning and qualified for his PhD in 1975. Furthermore, Hellwig also worked as a dramaturg. As the head of the artistic work group "Futurum" he collaborated with director Gottfried Kolditz for his utopian feature film "Im Staub der Sterne" ("In the Dust of the Stars", 1976).

The director continued to deal with German history and the present political situation in his following film. The compilation film "Kennst Du das Land… Eine politische Revue" (1979) celebrated the 30-year anniversary of the GDR in an uncritical way, while "Im Land der Adler und Kreuze – Bilder aus der deutschen Geschichte" (1980) documented Adolf Hitler's rise to power. "Kaiser, Könige und Soldaten" was dedicated to the period of time between the foundation of the German Reich and the era of fascism. In "Väter der Tausend Sonnen" (1989), Hellwig portrayed the physicist Klaus Fuchs who had defected to the Soviet Union. His last film for DEFA, "Zwischen Konveyer und Troika" (1990) was a portrait of the German physicists Georg Friedrich Houtermanns and Alexander Weissberg.

From 1991 on, after the liquidation of DEFA, Hellwig worked as a freelancer, presented several video productions, and also worked as an artistic advisor. Furthermore, Hellwig wrote and published several books, "Ein Tagebuch für Anne Frank" (together with Günter Deicke), "Der 20. Juli und der Fall Heusinger" (together with Hans Oley), and "Bilder eines starken Mannes".

Joachim Hellwig lives with his family in Potsdam.