Häge was born in 1928 or 1929. Rowing trainer Ludwig Marquardt discovered the young rower from Ulm and got him to join the Ruderverein "Neptun" in Konstanz. For the 1954 rowing season, Marquardt looked for another rower to form a double scull boat with Häge and found Schneider from the Rudergesellschaft Gießen. The scullers won a regatta in Hanover, a three-nation contest in Klagenfurt, and then the German national championships in Hanover. This qualified them for the 1954 European Rowing Championships, held shortly later in Amsterdam, where they won gold in the double sculls. This was the first medal for Germany after the war and was thus the reason for much celebration for the once dominant rowing nation. In December 1954, Häge and Schneider received the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt, Germany's highest sports award, from the nation's president Theodor Heuss.
