- Studied theatre science, German philology, art history, and publicism in Munich. Published some poems and short stories during early 1950s, co-edited the literature magazine "Spuren". In 1952, he took acting lessons, co-founded a student theatre which became established as the university's studio stage in 1954. He assisted (camera, editing, production) in several films during mid-50ies, became script adviser in the educational film production company 'Gesellschaft fur bildende Filme (GBF)' in 1957. He started directing his own short documentaries, industrial films, and short films in 1959. In the same year, Edgar Reitz, Herbert Vesely, Haro Senft, Raimund Ruehl, and Franz-Josef Spieker founded 'Doc 59' aka 'Münchener Gruppe' which prepared the 'Oberhausener Manifest' of 1962. From 1962-65, Reitz directed a department at the 'Insel-Film' production company. In 1963, Edgar Reitz and Alexander Kluge initiated the foundation of the film department at 'Hochschule fur Gestaltung' (College for Design) in Ulm. Reitz' first feature, Table for Love (1967), is among the many debuts in the aftermath of the Oberhausener Manifest which shaped the term 'New German Cinema'.
- IMDb mini biography by: Frank Schlueter <frs@krypta.in-berlin.de>
- SpouseSalome Kammer(1995 - present)
- The frequent switching between color and black-and-white film to convey different emotional states
- Poetic figures and images
- Subtle focus on a succession of mostly ordinary events and characters
- Relates to history with the utmost attention to detail, focusing on the seemingly unremarkable lives of people
- History seen from ground level, from periphery
- His father Robert was a watchmaker and his business in Morbach was later taken over by Reitz's brother Guido.
- Father of Christian Reitz.
- Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 29th Venice International Film Festival in 1968.
- Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival in 2005.
- President of the 'Leopards of Tomorrow' jury at the 69th Locarno International Film Festival in 2016.
- What's necessary to me is not to be at the centre of all these historical events but to be at the periphery, because the periphery is the best position for storytelling. If you're at the centre you have famous people and big events, and whatever you say, historical prejudices play a part in how your story is received. In an unimportant place I get a mirror image of the world. All the important things are there but without the cliches that you get in the media.
- When two people build a house. It is a symbolic act. What they want is stability.
- [on Heimat] If you notice, in all the Heimats there is a house at the centre. These are all old houses so they symbolise a history that is bigger than the people who live there. When my characters die the house lives on. For me as a storyteller that means new beginnings. There is always the possibility of new beginnings.
- Every artistic endeavor has "limits": facing the borders of possibility has always been important to me. However, I find that cinema is only now starting to lose its early restrictions. Only now do we acknowledge the possibilities of great, epic storytelling. Literature, which has existed for millennia, is much further ahead in that regard. There's the short form of verse, the dramatic structure of theater, the scope of novels... We still have many borders and taboos to break.
- In 1980, with Heimat, my aim was to combine the experiences of a lifetime in a great narrative form. My main thesis was that a human being can be observed in a realistic fashion only if you consider the time and places of his existence as important as his attributes.
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