Carl Mayer

Carl Mayer ( born November 20, 1894 in Graz, † July 1, 1944 in London) was an Austrian writer.

Life

Carl Mayer was born the son of an unsuccessful businessman. At the age of 16, he became an orphan when his father, after he had lost a significant amount of money while playing, committed suicide. To earn his living and to support his three younger brothers, he took a series of odd jobs. He worked as a peddler, Choir, extra and draftsman, then as an actor at provincial theaters.

Shortly after the First World War learned Mayer in 1919 as a dramaturge at the small Berlin Palace Theatre know the former officer and Czech poet Hans Janowitz. Together they wrote the screenplay for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which established him as an author quickly in the film.

After a second Expressionist film, Genuine (1920), turned away from Carl Mayer from " Caligarismus " and devoted himself to the work on scenarios chamber feature films, naturalistic dramas in the petty bourgeois milieu. 1924 Mayer wrote the screenplay for The Last Man by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, which is considered a masterpiece of the German silent cinema. The highlight of his long-standing collaboration with Murnau 1926 will be realized the unfinished screenplay in Germany to sunrise, the Murnau in 1927 in the United States.

Mayer went in 1932, first to France, then to England in 1935. He died on July 1, 1944 in London at the age of 49 years to cancer.

In September 2010, he was honored with a star on the Boulevard of Stars in Berlin.

Screenplays (selection)

Carl Mayer screenplay competition

Since 1989, writes Mayer's home town of Graz annually Carl Mayer screenplay competition, in order, as it says in the tender, with the honor " film poet Carl Mayer ( ... ) one of the most important writers of the 20 's of the last century." The Carl Mayer Script Prize is awarded in two categories: The main prize is worth 14,500 euros, Promotion price of 7,200 euros.