Fritz Lang

Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (Austrian German: [ˈfriːdrɪç ˈkrɪsti̯a(ː)n ˈantɔn ˈlaŋ]; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (Austrian German: [ˈfrɪts ˈlaŋ]), was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States. One of the best-known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute. He has been cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time.

Lang's work spans five decades, from the Expressionist silent films of his first German creative period to his short stay in Paris and his work as a Hollywood director to his last three films made in Germany. Lang's most celebrated films include the futuristic science-fiction film Metropolis (1927) and the influential M (1931), a film noir precursor. His 1929 film Woman in the Moon showcased the use of a multi-stage rocket, and also pioneered the concept of a rocket launch pad (a rocket standing upright against a tall building before launch having been slowly rolled into place) and the rocket-launch countdown clock.

His other major films include Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), Die Nibelungen (1924), and after moving to Hollywood in 1934, Fury (1936), You Only Live Once (1937), Hangmen Also Die! (1943), The Woman in the Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945) and The Big Heat (1953). He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939.

Lang was born in Vienna, as the second son of Anton Lang (1860–1940), an architect and construction company manager, and his wife Pauline "Paula" Lang (née Schlesinger; 1864–1920). There is no documented evidence of the true identity of Anton Lang's biological father; he was born as an illegitimate child of a maid from Moravia. Anton Lang was described as a "lapsed Catholic," and was a builder and partner in Honus and Lang, an important construction company Pauline Lang was born Jewish and converted to Catholicism. Fritz Lang was baptized on December 28, 1890, at the Schottenkirche in Vienna. He had an elder brother, Adolf (1884–1961).

Lang's father was of Moravian descent. At one point, he noted that he was "born [a] Catholic and very puritan". Ultimately describing himself as an atheist, Lang believed that religion was important for teaching ethics.

After finishing school, Lang briefly attended the Technical University of Vienna, where he studied civil engineering and eventually switched to art. He left Vienna in 1910 to travel throughout Europe and Africa, later Asia and the Pacific area. In 1913, he studied painting in Paris. He was arrested by the French authorities as an "enemy alien," but escaped to Vienna, where he was drafted into the Imperial Austrian Army.

At the outbreak of World War I, Lang lived in the house of his parents in Gars am Kamp (both his parents are buried in Gars) in Lower Austria, where he used to paint. After this he returned to Vienna and volunteered for military service in the Austrian Army, fighting in Russia and Romania. Lang was wounded four times and lost sight in his right eye, when he then saw a Max Reinhardt show for injured soldiers and played in a Red Cross revue. For a short period of time he was also located in Ljutomer where he stayed with Karol Grossmann where he initially got interested in movies. During his convalescence he began writing plays and simple scenarios with Austrian film director Joe May devising a two-reel film from a Lang scenario. At the end of the war, Lang began to mingle with the demobilized Berlin artists and was discharged from the army with the rank of lieutenant in 1918. Lang briefly acted in the Viennese theater circuit before being hired as a writer at Decla Film, Erich Pommer's Berlin-based production company.

On 13 February 1919, in the Marriage Registry Office in Charlottenburg, Berlin, Lang married a theater actress named Elisabeth Rosenthal. Rosenthal died of a single gunshot wound in their bathtub on September 25, 1920, the shot deemed to have been fired by Lang's World War I Browning revolver. Lang and his future wife Harbou claimed that Rosenthal had shot herself, and Lang and Harbou were charged with failure to render aid. The charge was soon dropped.