[3] In the first half of the 1920s, he studied medicine in Graz and Vienna then moved to Berlin, where he became an editor at UFA GmbH in 1926.

He moved to Vienna, where he met the Italian director and producer Carmine Gallone.

He edited ten of Gallone's films, remaining in Rome until 1940, when he fled first to France and then the United Kingdom.

Allowed in as a communist refugee from the Nazis, he worked for the Ministry of Information editing propaganda films.

[5] In 1950, Hafenrichter edited the first of more than 20 Brazilian films, mostly for the Vera Cruz production company.