Carl Mayer
Encyclopedia
- For the German playwright (1896-1977), see Carl ZuckmayerCarl ZuckmayerCarl Zuckmayer was a German writer and playwright.-Biography:Born in Nackenheim in Rheinhessen, he was four years old when his family moved to Mainz. With the outbreak of World War I, he finished school with a facilitated "emergency"-Abitur and volunteered for military service...
.
Carl Mayer (20 November 1894, Graz, Austria - 1 July 1944, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) was an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n screenplay writer who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene from a screenplay by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. It is one of the most influential of German Expressionist films and is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of the silent era. This movie is cited as...
(1920), The Haunted Castle (1921), Der Letzte Mann (1924), Tartuffe (1926), Sunrise
Sunrise (film)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, also known as Sunrise, is a 1927 American silent film directed by German film director F. W. Murnau. The story was adapted by Carl Mayer from the short story "Die Reise nach Tilsit" by Hermann Sudermann.Sunrise won an Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Production...
(1927) and 4 Devils
4 Devils
4 Devils was a 1928 American silent drama film directed by German film director F. W. Murnau.-Preservation status:...
(1928), the last five being films directed by F. W. Murnau.
Mayer was the son of a stock speculator who committed suicide, forcing the young Carl to leave school at 15, and go to work as a secretary. Mayer moved from Graz to Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
and then Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, where he worked as a dramatist. The events of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
turned him into a pacifist.
In 1917, Mayer went to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where he worked at the small Residenztheater. He befriended Gilda Langer, a leading actress of the theater and fell in love with her. He wrote the script for Dr. Caligari (1920) with Hans Janowitz
Hans Janowitz
Hans Janowitz was a Bohemian-born German author.Janowitz was an officer in World War I, but returned from it as a pacifist. Shortly after the war ended, he met the similarly minded Carl Mayer in Berlin, who suggested he work as an author. Together they wrote the script to The Cabinet of Dr...
, and planned to have Langer star in the movie. However, Langer became engaged to director Paul Czinner
Paul Czinner
Paul Czinner was a writer, film director, and producer.Czinner was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary. After studying literature and philosophy at the University of Vienna, he worked as a journalist. From 1919 onward, he dedicated himself to work for the filming industry as writer, director and...
, then Langer died unexpectedly early in 1920. (The role went to actress Lil Dagover
Lil Dagover
Lil Dagover was a German stage, film and television actress whose career spanned nearly six decades.-Early life:...
instead.) Mayer paid for Langer's tombstone and had notes from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
engraved on it.
Kabinett led to Mayer working with many leading directors in Germany. He worked with F. W. Murnau on Der Letzte Mann (1924, known as The Last Laugh in the English-speaking world) in Germany, and he also wrote the scenario for Murnau's Sunrise (1927), made during Murnau's stay in Hollywood. Mayer also co-wrote Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (1927) with Karl Freund
Karl Freund
Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. was a cinematographer and film director most noted for photographing Metropolis , Dracula , and television's I Love Lucy .-Early life:...
and Walter Ruttmann
Walter Ruttmann
Walter Ruttmann was a German film director and along with Hans Richter and Viking Eggeling was an early German practitioner of experimental film....
.
Shortly after working with Béla Balázs
Béla Balázs
----Béla Balázs , born Herbert Bauer, was a Hungarian-Jewish film critic, aesthete, writer and poet....
on the script for Das Blaue Licht
Das Blaue Licht
Das Blaue Licht is a black-and-white 1932 film written and directed by Leni Riefenstahl and Béla Balázs, with uncredited scripting by Carl Mayer. In Riefenstahl's film version, the witch, Junta, played by Riefenstahl, is intended to be a sympathetic character...
(1932), which was directed by Leni Riefenstahl
Leni Riefenstahl
Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens , a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party...
, Mayer moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1933 to escape the Nazi regime. Being a Jew as well as a pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
, he had to flee Germany when the Nazis came to power. In London, he worked as an adviser to the British film industry, and became friends with British film figures such as director and film writer Paul Rotha
Paul Rotha
Paul Rotha was a British documentary film-maker, film historian and critic. He was educated at Highgate School....
.
In 1942, Mayer was diagnosed with cancer. Near the end of his life, he wanted to make a documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
on London, but due to anti-German sentiment and difficult economic conditions, he was unable to find a producer. His illness was treated somewhat ineptly due to war conditions and he died on 1 July 1944, poor and almost forgotten, having only 23 pounds in cash and two books. He was buried at Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
in London and his epitaph reads "Pioneer in the art of the cinema. Erected by his friends and fellow workers". The city of Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
has named a prize after him.