Birgel began his acting career before World War I on the stage in his native city of Cologne, and came to movies rather late.

He was about 43 years old before he got his first major film role as the English camp commandant in Paul Wegener's A Man Wants to Get to Germany.

This UFA-production that premiered on 26 July 1934, portrays a German engineer living in South America who hears in 1914 of war in Europe.

Similar films made by Birgel for the National Socialist Regime include Unternehmen Michael (1937), Feinde (1940) and Kameraden (1941).

Besides the propaganda films, Birgel starred in a number of popular movies such as Der Fall Deruga (1938), becoming an unlikely public favorite.