He was born 26th June 1959 in Quedlinburg in Germany. The son of actor Ezard Haussmann and costume designer Doris Haussmann, he attended the Ernst Busch theatre school in Berlin. Haussmann was the theatre director of the city theatre in Bochum (Schauspielhaus Bochum). He also wrote and acted in several plays (1995-2000), and had a role in the Detlev Buck film, Männerpension. His feature film breakthrough came with Sonnenallee in 1999. His second feature, Herr Lehmann, followed in 2003. His production Die Fledermaus in Munich was controversial, compounding the trouble surrounding his production of Peter Pan. As a result, his scheduled production of Romeo and Julietwas cancelled.