Werner Herzog (his real last name is Stipetic) was born in Munich on September 5th, 1942 and grew up in an isolated village in the Bavarian Mountains. During his childhood he never went to the cinema, watched television or used the telephone. He had his first telephone conversation when he was 17. He began to travel, always on foot, at the age of 14. During his high school years, he worked the night shift as a welder in order to be able to make his first films. In 1961, at the age of 19, he directed his first film and in 1963 he founded Werner Herzog Filmproduction in Munich. That same year, he won a film study scholarship to the University of Pittsburg, but after a few weeks he dropped out and began traveling through the States and Mexico, while he also participated in the founding of a utopian community in Guatemala. In 1965 he won the Carl Meyer Award for the screenplay of his first feature, Signs of Life, which he filmed in 1968 in Greece, on the island of Kos. Since then he has directed over 50 films and numerous operas, and has authored several books.
Filmography
1962 Herakles
1964 Spiel im SandGame in the Sand
1966 Die beispiellose Verteidigung der Festung Deutschkreuz/The Unprecedented Defense of the Fortress Deutschkreuz
1968 Lebenzeichen/Signs of Life
1968 Letzte Worte/Last Words
1969 Massnahmen gegen Fanatiker/Precautions against Fanatics
1969 Die fliegenden Arzte von Ostafrika/The Flying Doctors of East Africa
1970 Fata Morgana
1970 Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen/Even Dwarfs Started Small
1971 Behinderte Zukunft/Handicapped Future
1971 Land des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit/Land of Silence and Darkness
1972 Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes/Aguirre, the Wrath of God
1973 Die Grosse Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner/The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner
1974 Jeder fur sich und Gott gegen alle/The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
1976 Herz aus Glas/Heart of Glass
1976 Stroszek/Στρότσεκ
1976 Mit mir will keiner spielen/No One Will Play with Me
1976 How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck
1977 La Soufriere
1978 Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht/Nosferatu: the Vampyre
1979 Woyzeck
1980 Glaube und Wahrung/God’s Angry Man
1980 Huie’s Predigt/Huie’s Sermon
1982 Fitzcarraldo
1984 Ballade vom kleinen Soldaten/Ballad of the Little Soldier
1984 Gasherbrum - Der leuchtende Berg/The Dark Glow of the Mountains
1984 Wo die grunen Ameisen traumen/Where the Green Ants Dream
1986 Portrait Werner Herzog
1987 Cobra Verde
1988 Les Francais vus par...: Les Gaulois
1989 Wodaabe – Die Hirten der Sonne/Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun
1990 Echos aus einem dusteren Reich/Echoes from a Sombre Empire
1991 Jag Mandir. Das excentrische Privattheater des Maharadjah von Udaipur/Jag Mandir: The Eccentric Private Theater of the Maharaja of Udaipur
1991 Schrei aus Stein/Scream of Stone
1991 Film Lesson
1992 Lektionen in Finsternis/Lessons of Darkness
1993 Glocken aus der Tiefe/Bells from the Deep
1994 Die Verwandlung der Welt in Musik/The Transformation of the World into Music
1995 Gesualdo – Tod fur funf Stimmen/Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices
1997 Flucht aus Laos/Little Dieter Needs to Fly
1999 Julianes Sturz in den Dschungel/Wings of Hope
1999 Mein liebster Feind – Klaus Kinski/My Best Fiend
1999 Gott und die Beladenen/Christ and Demons in New Spain
2000 Invincible
2001 Pilgrimage
2001 Ten Thousand Years Older (segment: Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet)
2003 Wheel of Time
2004 The White Diamond
2005 Grizzly Man
2005 The Wild Blue Yonder
2006 Rescue Dawn
2007 Encounters at the End of the World
2009 Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
2009 La Boheme
2009 My Son, My Son What Have Ye Done
