Biography

Was a stage designer in Zurich and member of a group of artists calling themselves 'Der Sturm'. Subsequently signed by Ufa as a painter. During the 1920's, he had a fruitful collaboration with Robert Herlth, beginning with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Co-designed many striking sets, including the expressionist architecture for Faust (1926) and the cosmopolitan Parision decor for Tartuffe (1925). Though much of his work during the Nazi period was routinely commercial, he still managed to help create (alongside Herlth) several sumptuous-looking films, such as Dawn (1933) and Barcarole (1935).

The production designer Walter Röhrig began his career as a coulisse painter at the theater.

Walter Röhrig and Robert Herlth also realised their one and only movie as a director with "Hans im Glück" (1936). They were also responsible for the script and the production design.

Hermann Warm, another designer in the Sturm group, claimed in reaction against naturalism that "films must be drawings brought to life," and both Warm and Röhrig, along with Walter Reimann, another Expressionist, came to the fore as film designers in the Expressionist style with the celebrated film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in 1919, directed by Robert Wiene immediately after Germany's defeat in the First World War.

He joined the film business in 1919 where he worked together first with the noted production designer Hermann Warm for movies like "Die Pest in Florenz" (1919) and "Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari" (1920).