Peter Lorre acted on various stages in Breslau, Zurich and Vienna before coming to Berlin in 1929 when Bertolt Brecht invited him to play the role of Fabian in his production of Marieluise Fleißer's Pioniere in Ingolstadt.

A genius producer and businessman on both sides of the Atlantic, Erich Pommer is the driving force of fifty years of German film history.

One of the great geniuses of comedy in the cinema, Ernst Lubitsch was the most successful of the many émigrés and exiles in his transition from Weimar Germany to Hollywood.

Robert Siodmak's directorial debut was the famous Berlin film Menschen am Sonntag (1930), which establishes him as serious filmmaker.

The younger brother of director Robert Siodmak, Curt Siodmak earned a PhD in mathematics before turning to writing novels.

View a timeline of the movement of some of Hollywood's biggest legends from Europe to the United States.

Trained as both a violinist and a lawyer, Zinnemann moved to America in 1937 after working on Menschen am Sonntag (1929), in Germany and The Wave (1934) in Mexico.

Before 1932, he was primarily a writer of humorous and light screenplays, often in close collaboration with Kurt Bernhardt. His first film as director was Das Abenteuer der Thea Roland (1932).

One of the most renown and accomplished directors of the 20th century, Lang’s exceptional career began as scriptwriter for Joe May’s company where he met his future wife Thea von Harbou.

A businessman and operetta director, Joe May can be considered one of the founders of the German cinema.