Austrian film director, screenwriter and producer, who worked in Germany and later in the USA.
Born in Vienna in 1890 to architect Anton Lang. His parents were emigrants from Moravia. Her mother was a Jewish convert to Catholicism. After finishing primary school, Lang studied architecture at the Technical University of Vienna (from 1907), then painting at the Academy of Graphic Arts in Vienna (from 1908) and at the Munich State School of Fine Arts (from 1911).From 1913 to 1914, he studied at the Maurice Denis School of Painting and at the Académie Julian in Paris.
During the First World War, from 12 January 1915, Lang volunteered for the front, where he became a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian army. He served on the Italian front. He was wounded three times and decorated many times.
After the war, he wrote scripts and acted in cabarets until he met the producer Erich Pommer in 1920, who invited him to Germany to work for him. Lang is considered a classic of German silent cinema, and he made cinema history primarily thanks to the film Metropolis, which was made in 1926.Lang's first sound film was called M (1931). In 1932, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse) was released, based on a screenplay by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou. However, the film was soon banned by the Nazi censors. In addition, Lang had received an offer from Goebbels to make a Nazi film even though his mother was Jewish. After refusing the offer, Lang left Germany for France, where he made the film Liliom in 1934.
On 1 June 1934, Lang signed a contract with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film company and left Europe on 6 June. Lang worked in the USA until 1956 when he decided to return to Germany. Lang's post-war work is represented by westerns and gangster action films.
