He is infertile since an illness in childhood

He closed Belgrade Film Festival - FEST 2006.

Considers Yasujiro Ozu his all time grandmaster.

President of the European Film Academy

After studying medicine and philosophy in Munich, Freiburg and Düsseldorf, he joined the Munich Academy for Television and Film in 1968.

Donated his $5,000 Cannes prize for "Wings of Desire" (Himmel über Berlin, Der (1987)) to Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan.

President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1989

Many of his films are indebted to Nicholas Ray, which is proved by the expressionistic use of color in Amerikanische Freund, Der (1977) or the title of Bis ans Ende der Welt (1991) (Until The End of The World), the last spoken words in Ray's King of Kings (1961). Im Lauf der Zeit (1976) also lovingly lifts a scene from Ray's The Lusty Men (1952). His movie Lightning Over Water (1980) is a documentary about Nicholas Ray's last days.

He worked with all of his wives on at least one movie: With Edda Köchl: Alice in den Städten (1974), Summer in the City (1970) and Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter, Die (1972); with Lisa Kreuzer: Alice in den Städten (1974), Amerikanische Freund, Der (1977), Falsche Bewegung (1975) and Im Lauf der Zeit (1976); with Isabelle Weingarten: Stand der Dinge, Der (1982); with Ronee Blakley: Docu Drama (1984), Docu Drama (1984) and Lightning Over Water (1980) and with Donata Wenders: Al di là delle nuvole (1995), Arisha, der Bär und der steinerne Ring (1992), Buena Vista Social Club (1999), The End of Violence (1997), Lisbon Story (1994), Land of Plenty (2004) and The Million Dollar Hotel (2000).