The puppeteer, author, director and lecturer Hans-Jochen Menzel was born in the Ore Mountains in 1956. At the age of 18, he was a construction worker, and at 23, he studied puppet theater at the acting school in Berlin/Ost. In 1981, Menzel began a permanent engagement at the Staatliches Puppentheater Neubrandenburg and has worked freelance since 1985, including at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin and the Schauspiel Frankfurt. His own projects, commissioned works and workshops have taken him to France and the Netherlands as well as to numerous festivals in German-speaking countries, including the Salzburg Festival. From 2003 to 2012, he was head of the puppetry department at the HfS Ernst Busch.