One of the most influential filmmakers in New German Cinema and one of the most extreme personalities in film per se, larger-than-life Werner Herzog quickly gained recognition not only for creating some of the most fantastic narratives in the history of the medium, but for pushing himself and his crew to absurd and unprecedented lengths, again and again, in order to achieve the effects he demanded.

Born Werner Stipetic in Munich on September 5, 1942, Herzog came of age in Sachrang, Bavaria, amid extreme poverty and destitution, because his father (with whom he nonetheless had a superb relationship) could never hold down a job for any decent length of time. When their parents divorced, eleven-year-old Werner and his two brothers moved with their Yugoslavian mother to Munich. Though something of an underachiever in elementary and middle school, Herzog nevertheless demonstrated frightening intelligence from an early age, and recognized his future vocation in his early teens, when he began ferociously authoring one script after another and submitting the scenarios to German film producers. He also cultivated a strong affinity for (and aptitude with) poetry, gleaning a number of literary awards as a young man.

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