Rudolf Meinert
director, producer, writer
- Birth name:
- Rudolf Bürstein
- Born:
- 1882-09-28, Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]
- Died:
- 1943, Majdanek Concentration Camp, Lublin, Lubelskie, Poland
- Professions:
- director, producer, writer
Biography
Vienna, 28 September 1882: Rudolf Meinert enters the world of the Habsburg capital and will later help invent the grammar of German silent cinema. Between 1916 and 1918 he steers three early milestones through the camera gates: the espionage maze *John Rool*, the sparkling society case *Der Saratogakoffer*, and the shimmering society portrait *Die schöne Jolan*. Behind the lens he is equally at home as producer, plot architect, and on-set strategist, shaping the fledgeling film industry in Berlin and Vienna. The Third Reich’s racial laws catch up with him; in 1943 the Nazis deport him to Majdanek, near Lublin, Poland. No roll-call survives his arrival; Meinert’s life ends in the camp that same year, his camera forever stilled.
