- Thea von Harbou
Thea Gabriele von Harbou (
December 27 ,1888 –July 1 ,1954 ) was a German actress and author ofPrussia n aristocratic origin. She was born in Tauperlitz in theKingdom of Bavaria .In 1905, she published her first novel in the "Deutsche Roman-Zeitung". However, she then started to work as an actress, beginning in 1906 in
Düsseldorf , then moving toWeimar (1908),Chemnitz (1911) andAachen (1913). In Aachen she met her first husband, theactor and directorRudolf Klein-Rogge , whom she married in 1914.In 1920, she wrote her first film script "Das Indische Grabmal" ("The Indian Tomb, Mysteries of India"), together with
Fritz Lang . Fritz Lang became her second husband in 1922, and they collaborated in the following years, writing the screenplays for "Metropolis" and "M" together. They separated in October 1931 and divorced in 1933.In 1932, a year before
Adolf Hitler came to power, she joined theNational Socialist German Workers Party , which presumably led to the divorce from Lang, who left Germany in 1934 for Paris after his film "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse " had been banned by the Nazi government.Harbou wrote the script for "
Der Herrscher " (1937), directed byVeit Harlan and starringEmil Jannings . The movie celebrates unconditional submission under absolute authority, eventually finding reward in total victory.After the war she was detained by the British military government, and then did unskilled labor, such as cleaning up rubble from the bombing. After receiving a working permit she did some synchronizing of movies, but also continued to write scripts.
In 1954 she died in Berlin.
cripts (selection)
*"Destiny" (1921) directed by Fritz Lang
*"Phantom" (1922) directed by F. W. Murnau
*"Michael" (1924) directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
*"Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler " ("Dr. Mabuse, King of Crime") (1922)
*"" ("Siegfried's Death") (1924)
*"" ("Kriemhilde's Revenge") (1924)
*"Metropolis" (1927)
*"Spione " ("Spies") (1928)
*"Frau im Mond " ("Woman in the Moon"), from her novel "Die Frau im Mond " (1929)
*"M" (1931)External links
*imdb name|id=0902376|name=Thea von Harbou
*for a Biography, see [http://www.leninimports.com/thea_von_harbou.html]
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