Besides Bernhard Grzimek and Heinz Sielmann he belongs to the German wildlife documentary filmmakers with an international reputation.
His career began in the early 1930s with educational and cultural shortfilms about the wildlife in South America and the German Reich.
37 episodes of On the Track of rare Animals (Auf den Spuren seltener Tiere) were shot, a series which has taken the audience on a journey to Galapagos, Papua New Guinea, Africa, and other exotic places.
In 1966 he finished his movie project The Last Paradises: On the Track of Rare Animals, a film which had taken seven years to make.
His last movie Europas Paradiese (Europe's paradises) had its premiere after his death.