Hermann Wlach

Biography

Vienna, 11 August 1884: the curtain rose on Hermann Wlach’s life. By 1915 he had stepped before the camera for Sein schwiffster Fall, followed a year later by the courtroom silence of Aussage verweigert, and in 1921 by the Iberian intrigues of Der Perlenmacher von Madrid—three early landmarks that still carry his name through cinema history. Actor, director, indefatigable storyteller, Wlach rode the flickering tides of silent film until the talkies arrived, then slipped behind the scenes and back again, always chasing the next scene. His final exit came quietly on 28 January 1962, in Zollikon, Switzerland, closing a life that had spanned the Habsburg twilight, two world wars, and the birth of a new art form.