Karl Gass was born February 2, 1917 in Mannheim.  Before being called to military duty in the Second World War he worked as an intern in commercial economics in Cologne and was a champion rower.  After the war and time as a POW he became the business editor at Nordwest Deutscher Rundfunk in Cologne, until he relocated to Berliner Rundfunk in 1948.  In 1951 Gass began a prolific career in the DEFA studios:  as a writer and director for the studio for Wochenschau und Dokumentarfilme; editor for the news reels series Der Augenzeuge; artistic director at the studios for Populaerwissenschaftliche Filme.  He was a co-founder of the Leipzig Film Festival for Documentary and Short Films introduced in 1951. Gass remained active in the DEFA studios until 1990.

Filmography

Friendship and Peace (Freundschaft und Frieden) 1951; The Way Up (Der Weg nach oben) 1951; Turbine I (1953); Look at the City (Schaut auf diese Stadt) 1962; The Condemned Toscaninis (Die verdammten Toscaner) 1976; The Year 1945 (Das Jahr 1945) 1985; Nationality: German (Nationalitaet: deutsch) 1990.