After military service and being a prisoner of war he returns ill from Russia in 1949. Thanks to the help of his wife and his brother he recovers. After working on commission, Manfred Schatz finally finds what he is destined to do in the early 50s: to capture wild animals in the moment of movement in their natural surroundings. He never goes hunting himself except with brush and easel. As he does not believe in photos or filming his only aid are binoculars. On his many travels he repeatedly returns to the countryside in Scandinavia, especially to Sweden. In the 80s, he returns at last to visit his home in the region of Pomerania, that had been practically burnt down in World War II. Here at the Stettiner Haff he experiences nature that he loved so much as a child and puts it on canvas. Following the example of the impressionist plein-air paintings, the artist draws animals with charcoal and paints landscape studies in oil out in the open air. From these he then develops oil paintings in his atelier that can only be described as great and even moving.