[1] After the war's end, he began working as a property master and a stage manager in a theater in his native Magdeburg, while studying acting in a local studio.

[3][5][6][7] Herricht made his film debut in DEFA's 1959 comedy Before the Lightning Strikes, playing a minor part of a locomotive constructor.

[8] Herricht appeared on screen in relatively minor roles until writer Maurycy Janowski and director Gottfried Kolditz decided to create a film, the plot of which would be based on his comical skill, the 1964 Geliebte weiße Maus.

Herricht starred in several other popular DEFA comedies during the 1960s and the 1970s: among others, he played the erratic National People's Army reserve soldier Ralf Horricht in the 1965 Der Reserveheld and the last-minute-travel-guide Hurtig in the 1967 Meine Freundin Sybille.

His 1965 Hände hoch oder ich schieße, in which he again appeared as an eccentric policeman, was banned at the 11th plenary session of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and only released in 2009, 28 years after his death.