Hans Walter Richter studied theater, film and media studies as well as musicology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Afterwards he was engaged as a stage manager at the Stadttheater Gießen. Here he created his first own directorial works such as: Der Schauspieldirektor / Letters of van Gogh / Miss Donnithorne's Maggot / Eight Songs for a Mad King / Bastien und Bastienne / The Chinese Nightingale / The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

Since the 2008/09 season he has been working as an assistant director at the Frankfurt Opera. He assisted directors such as Christof Loy, Vera Nemirova, Jens-Daniel Herzog, Keith Warner and Marco Arturo Marelli.

After directing works for the "Opera for Children" series at the Frankfurt Opera (Orfeo, Lohengrin, La Fanciulla del West, Tosca, Die Fledermaus), he staged The Soldier's Tale and the world premiere Anna Toll in Frankfurt.

In 2014, his work as a director continued at the Stadttheater Gießen with the German premiere of Jake Heggie's opera For a Look or a Touch. In 2015, the production of Donizetti's rarely performed opera Linda di Chamounix followed in Giessen, which also received great attention nationwide (including a nomination in the trade magazine Die Deutsche Bühne for the best production in 2015), as well as the production of Gustav Holst's Savitri.

In 2017, Cosi fan Tutte followed at the Stadttheater Giessen as well as Tosca at the Landestheater Coburg.

In 2018, he staged Madama Butterfly at Theater Münster.

In 2019, Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium followed at Oper Frankfurt (with a new production in fall 2020).

In 2021, he staged War. Stell Dir vor, er wäre hier by Marius Felix Lange at the Stadttheater Gießen as well as Adophe Adam's Le Postillon de Lonjumeau at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl.