I n t r o d u c t i o n

Austrian, German and Swiss Film People in Hollywood
 

I N F L U E N C E S

The Germanic impact (Austrian, German and German-Swiss) on Hollywood is often underestimated or even ignored. But the fact is that Hollywood — without its decades of Teutonic influence — would not be the center of the world's entertainment industry that it is today. True, there have been other influences from France, Italy, Russia, Japan, Great Britain and other sources, but just as people of Germanic heritage make up the largest single ethnic element other than Anglo-Saxon in the United States, no other single influence on American cinema has been greater than that from the German-speaking world.

The Three Waves of Hollywood Immigration

1910-1931
From the earliest days of American motion picture production a more-or-less constant stream of Austrian, German, and German Swiss emigrés has crossed the Atlantic to influence the acting, directing, cinematography, set design, music and other aspects of American cinema. Some, such as the German Carl Laemmle (1867-1939) who founded Universal Studios, and the Austrian Marcus Loew (1870-1927), co-founder of the MGM studios and the Loew's theater chain, were present almost from the beginning and played a significant part in getting Hollywood's infant industry off to its start.

Why start with 1910? That is the year Hollywood became a part of Los Angeles and marks the beginning of the American film industry's move from the east coast to southern California.

The flow continued in the silent era boom of the 1920s. And it was not always in one direction. A few Americans, most notably actress Louise Brooks (1906-1985, Pandora's Box), were successful in "the other Hollywood" in Berlin. But the German director Ernst Lubitsch, the German actor Conrad Veidt, the German-Swiss director William Wyler, and the Austro-Hungarian director Michael Curtiz were just four of the very successful film people who moved from Europe to Hollywood in the 1920s.

1932-1945
From about 1932 on, the flow became a flood. Almost all of the emigrés of this period were forced into involuntary Hollywood exile by the horrible events created by the Third Reich. The Nazis drove some of the best film talent in Europe out of Austria and Germany to France, England, and with few exceptions, eventually to Hollywood. Some of the new arrivals thrived in the American film capital and went on to fame and success. This group includes such notables as Austrians Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, and Peter Lorre.

Other exiles, particularly the writers and composers, had a bad case of culture shock and were neither terribly successful nor very happy in Tinseltown. With the increasing number of artistic refugees, many ended up either unemployed or under-employed. Even relatively successful directors such as Wilhelm (William) Thiele (1890-1975), who had enjoyed highly respected standing in Europe, were forced to settle for making second-rate, low-budget films in Hollywood. Thiele, one of Germany's most successful directors in the 1930s, was reduced to directing Tarzan films and other B-film fare in Hollywood, even if he always made more out of them than might be expected under the circumstances.

1946-Present
In recent years Hollywood has continued to act as a strong magnet, drawing the German directors Roland Emmerich (Godzilla, Independence Day, The Patriot) and Wolfgang Petersen (Air Force One, The Perfect Storm), cameramen such as Michael Ballhaus (Outbreak) and Karl Walter Lindenlaub (Rob Roy), not to mention the Austrian bodybuilder-turned-actor/producer, Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947- ), or the German film music composers Hans Zimmer (Rain Man, The Lion King, Gladiator) and Berlin-born Christopher Franke (Universal Soldier, Tarzan and the Lost City).

Others have influenced Hollywood through their work, even though they remained in Europe. On our two German-Hollywood People pages you will find a selected but fairly comprehensive list of the Austrians, Germans and Swiss, past and present, who have contributed in some significant way to what moviegoers all over the world see on the silver screen.

For a complete index of these people and more see our Alphabetical Index of Germanic Film People.

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