Herwig Kipping was born in 1948 in Meyen, East Germany. From 1978 until 1982, he studied at the Academy for Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg. His thesis film, Hommage à Hölderlin (1982), received praise. Kipping then directed a short film about roofers for television, Sechs auf dem Dach (1984); protesting changes and edits made to this film earned him expulsion from the Party for “anti-socialist and oppositional activity.” Although he worked as a freelance writer at the DEFA Studio for Feature Films from 1984 to 1989, none of his scripts was accepted. At the same time, however, Kipping became a master student of director Heiner Carow. Finally in 1992, at the age of 43, he premiered his first feature film, Das Land hinter dem Regenbogen (1991), which he had been working on since 1986. Novalis - Die blaue Blume (1993), a love story about the Romantic philosopher and author Novalis, was his second and last feature film. Recently he has been working on a video project, Hymnen, in which he plans to include recorded material from the last ten years. Herwig Kipping lives in Berlin.

Selected Filmography

1993 Novalis - Die blaue Blume (Novalis – the Blue Flower)

1991 Das Land hinter dem Regenbogen (The Land beyond the Rainbow)

1984 Sechs auf dem Dach (transl. Six on the Roof, TV)

1983 Karl Stülpner oder Der Traum vom Fliegen (transl. Karl Stülpner or the Dream of Flying, TV, doc.)

1982 Hommage à Hölderlin