Carl Mayer

Carl Meyer was the son of a stock speculator who committed suicide. He had to leave school at 15 to work as a secretary. Mayer moved away from Graz to Innsbruck and then Vienna, where he worked as a dramatist. Meanwhile, the events of the First World War turned him into a pacifist. In 1917 he went to Berlin, where he worked at the small Residenztheater. He befriended Gilda Langer, the leading actress of the theatre and probably fell in love with her.

Carl Mayer wrote his first screenplay for "Die Frau im Käfig" (1919) and shortly afterwards he had a big hit with his screenplay for "Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari" (1920) which he wrote together with Hans Janowitz.

He was tired of his job at the theatre when he wrote the script for "Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari" (1920) together with Hans Janowitz.

It is thought that Gilda Langer was supposed to star in the movie, but she suddenly engaged herself with director Paul Czinner and then died unexpectedly early in 1920.

Murnau on "Der Letzte Man" (1924, known as "The Last Laugh" in the USA) and he also wrote the scenario for Murnau's "Sunrise" (1927). But he was a perfectionist who worked slowly and this frequently resulted in conflicts or financial trouble.

Carl Mayer wrote his last screenplays for the German film at the beginning of the 30s. Afterwards he left Germany and went to France where he wrote the script for "Mélo" (1932). Three years later he moved to England where his last screenplays came into being with "As You Like It" (1936), "Dreaming Lips" (1937) and "The Fourth Estate" (1940).

Being a Jew as well as a pacifist, he had to flee Germany in 1933 after the Nazis came to power. He went to England, where he worked as an adviser to the British film industry. In London he became friends with director Paul Rotha.

In 1942 he was diagnosed with cancer. Near the end of his life he wanted to make a documentary on London, but due to anti-German sentiments he was unable to find a producer.

Mayer took care of her tombstone and notes from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" were engraved in it (this was found out by Olaf Brill who rediscovered the tombstone in 1995). "Das Kabinett" made Mayer famous and soon he was a leading film writer, working with the best directors in Germany. He worked with F. W.