Max Reinhardt

One of the most prolific and influential figures of German theater in the early 20th century. Reinhardt was director of Berlin's Deutsches Theater from 1903, co-founded the annual Salzburg Festival in 1920 and owned and operated a string of theaters throughout Germany and Austria. Though he made only four films in Europe, he brought to the stage the expressionist aesthetic which greatly influenced the burgeoning German cinema. He also trained some of the greatest talents of Weimar cinema, including directors William Dieterle, Paul Leni, Ernst Lubitsch and F.W. Murnau, and actors Elisabeth Bergner, Curt Bois, Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings and Conrad Veidt.