Friedrich Haasse was the son of a valet to king Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia. The king was his godfather. He was trained as an actor by Ludwig Tieck and in 1846 he debuted in Weimar. Engagements in Prague (1849-1851), Karlsruhe (1852-1855, under Eduard Devrient) and St. Petersburg (1860-1866) followed. Apart from these engagements he toured the USA. In 1862 he had married his second wife Elise, an actress, at St. Petersburg.
In 1866 he accepted an engagement as director at the Hoftheater in Coburg. From 1870 to 1876 he was the manager of the Stadttheater in Leipzig and after his return to Berlin he founded the Deutsches Theater. In 1878 he received the Iffland-Ring. In 1898 he retired. There is still a Haase Straße in Berlin-Friedrichshain.
The graves of Elise and Friedrich Haase at the Kirchhof Jerusalem und Neue Kirche III, Halleschen Tor, Kreuzberg, Berlin.