Biography
Egon Schlegel, born December 13, 1936, in Zwickau, trained to become an electrician before he made his high school degree in evening classes and started to study directing at HFF Potsdam-Babelsberg in 1961.
Although his graduation film "Ritter des Regens" that he filmed together with Dieter Roth was cancelled and the material was kept under wraps due to the resolutions of the 11th plenary session of SED's Central Committee, Schlegel still received his diploma in 1966 and subsequently worked for DEFA-Studio für Dokumentarfilme before he managed to change to DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme in 1972. After several films as an assistant director, Schlegel finished "Abenteuer mit Blasius", his first film as a director in his own right, in 1975.
The science fiction film for children turned out to be a box office hit. Thus, Schlegel received further offers to direct children's and teenage films. With his films that covered a broad range of topics, Schlegel heavily influenced DEFA's children's film productions of the 1970s. During the next four years, he finished the fantasy film "Wer reißt denn gleich vor'm Teufel aus" ("The Devil's Three Golden Hairs"), based on a story by Brothers Grimm, as well as two youth films, "Das Pferdemädchen" and "Max und siebeneinhalb Jungen".
In 1982, Schlegel finished his last children's film, "Die Schüsse der Arche Noah", about a boy who experiences the end of World War II torn between his anti-Fascist Communist father and the environment that sympathizes with the National Socialist regime in a world that seems rather contradictory to him.
Egon Schlegel died February 22, 2013 in Groß Glienicke near Potsdam.