Herrmann Zschoche was born in Dresden in 1934. He worked as an assistant and director of photography for the East German television news program, Aktuelle Kamera. Zschoche studied directing at the German Film Academy in Potsdam-Babelsberg from 1954-1959, and became an assistant director to Frank Beyer (Star-Crossed Lovers, 1962).

From 1960 to 1991, Zschoche was a director at the DEFA Studio for Feature Films. His first successes were primarily children’s films, based on books by East German authors, followed by films about young people that struck a chord among the general public. Prominent themes in Zschoche’s work are the emancipation of women and the critical confrontation between young people and the older generation. His film, On Probation, about a divorced mother with three children, won Katrin Saß the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 1982 Berlin Film Festival.

Carla, a film on which he collaborated with author Ulrich Plenzdorf, was banned in 1965, along with a dozen other DEFA films. Officials labeled the film as nihilistic, skeptical, and hostile. Only in 1990, after the fall of the Wall, was Carla shown in cinemas.

From 1990 until he retired in 1998, Zschoche mainly directed films for major German television stations. In 2002, he published Seven Freckles and Other Memories, about his experience at the East German film studios. Herrmann Zschoche lives in Berlin.

Selected Filmography: 1996/1997 Spa Clinic Rosenau (TV series); 1991 Three Ladies at the Grill (TV series); 1990 The Girl in the Elevator; 1987 The Solo Sailor; 1984 Half of Life; 1982 Swan Island; 1981 On Probation; 1979 Backhouse Bliss; 1978 Seven Freckles; 1972 Eolomea; 1969 Wide Streets – Silent Love; 1967 Life for Two; 1965/1990 Carla; 1963 Little Matten and the White Shell; 1961 The Fairy Tale Castle.