RESOURCES  Biographies     Oswald, Richard

Previous | Next

Oswald, Richard

(Vienna 1880–Düsseldorf 1963)

Born as Richard Ornstein. Director. Oswald made a mark on German cinema by founding his own production company in 1916, and in the aftermath of World War I, many of his films focused on issues of sexuality and crime in German society, including Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (1918) and Anders als die Anderen (1919). in which stars like Conrad Veidt and William Dieterle appeared. Riding on the success of his lush costume drama, Lady Hamilton (1921), Oswald made a few notable films in sound: Wien, du Stadt der Lieder and Alraune (both 1930). When the Nazis took over Germany, however, he was forced to leave the country because he was a Jew. He traveled first to Britain, then to France, and finally settled in the United States. As with so many exiles, Oswald's American work never reached the quality that his films displayed during the Weimar era.