His career was interrupted by World War I and as a Swiss citizen he served for the Swiss Army in those years.
In Switzerland he realised his only movie as a director with "Meh Glück als Verstand" (1935) with Fredy Scheim.
He finished an education as a locksmith before he decided to take acting lessons.
Afterwards he got first engagements at the theaters, among others in Munich and Hamburg.
Ernst Bringolf left Germany with the rise of the National Socialist and went back to Switzerland where he continued to work at the theater and for the radio. For the radio he not only directed radio plays but also wrote some own plays.
In 1922 he concentrated to he theater career again, beside it he also worked for the radio where he realised radio plays as a director.