Robert Reinert(1872-1928)

Born near Vienna in 1872, Reinert's early life is shrouded in mystery. He apparently became a successful novelist, publishing "Der Weg zur Sonne" (1906) and "Krieg" (1907). After 1900 he moved to Munich, where he joined Frank Wedekind's cabaret, "Die Elf Scharfrichter". His first film script was for director William Wauer at Projektions-Union A.G., Berlin, in 1915. He achieved a huge success with his script for Otto Rippert's six part fantasy film, Homunculus (1916), and was then hired by Decla-Bioscop to write and direct films for Maria Carmi. He became artistic supervisor at Decla-Bioscop, Berlin, producing over twenty films in 1917-1918. In July 1918 Reinert left Decla-Bioscop to form his own company, Robert Reinert Monumental-Film GmbH. In 1920 the company merged with several other Munich based production firms to form Münchner Lichtspielkunst Konzern (Emelka). In 1925, after the commercial failure of his last films, he joined Ufa as producer and scriptwriter. He died suddenly of a heart attack in August 1928 and was buried in Munich.