He was the son of a lawyer who later relocated the family to Berlin where Barlog received his secondary school education and initially worked as bookseller.

During Barlog's 21-year tenure as its Generalintendant, the company mounted over 100 productions,[2] including the German premieres of Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Conor Cruise O'Brien's Murderous Angels and the world premieres of Günter Grass's Die Plebejer proben den Aufstand and Edward Albee's The Zoo Story.

However, according to theatre scholar Michael Patterson, the final decade of his leadership was marked by an increasingly authoritarian and conservative stance and unadventurous repertoire which led to declining audiences.

[8] In a 1969 interview in Der Abend, Barlog attributed the audience decline at his theatres to the effect of television, hostile critics, and what he termed "spiritual smugness", remarking: It will take care of itself in time.

[1] After his retirement as a theatre manager, he continued working throughout the 1970s as a stage and opera director in Berlin and other German cities as well as in Vienna and Salzburg.