Klaren, Georg C.

Biography:

Georg C. Klaren was born on October 9, 1900 in Vienna. He studied philology at the University there and then worked as a journalist and author. He started working as a dramaturg for Vita Film in Vienna in 1922 and then, as of 1925, worked mainly in Berlin.

 

Klaren was a very productive scriptwriter,  working for directors including Richard Oswald, Manfred Noa, Reinhold Schünzel, Gerhard Lamprecht and Gustaf Gründgens. He co-wrote the scripts for the successful detective story Der Hund von Baskerville (1929), based on Arthur Conan Boyle’s novel, and for Mary (1931), Alfred Hitchcock’s German remake of his 1930 film Murder!.

 

After Hitler took power, Klaren continued his work as a scriptwriter in Germany and Austria. Some of his scripts supported the ideas of the Nazi regime. In a 1947 interview, Klaren stated that he had written more than 180 scripts—although not all were turned into movies.

 

Klaren also directed about ten films. His directorial debut in 1931 was the social drama Kinder vor Gericht.

 

After World War II, he worked for a brief period at the East German DEFA Studio as a director, dramaturg, and scriptwriter. The four feature films he directed there included Wozzeck, based on Georg Büchner’s drama, which Klaren felt should continue the traditions of expressionist filmmaking, and Semmelweis - Retter der Mütter, the story of physician Ignaz Semmelweiss and his groundbreaking discoveries.

 

After leaving DEFA, Georg Klaren tried to continue working in film in Vienna and in West Berlin but his increasing blindness made it more and more difficult for him to work. He lived the last years of his life in Sawbridgeworth, in the United Kingdom, where he died on November 18, 1962.

Filmography:

1953 Regimetochter (Daughter of the Regime)
1952 Karriere in Paris (Career in Paris)
1951 Die Sonnenbrucks (The Sonnenbrucks)
1950 Ruf aus dem Äther (Call over the Air)
1950 Semmelweis - Retter der Mütter (Semmelweiss, Savior of Mothers)
1947 Wozzeck
1932 Ballhaus goldener Engel (Ballhaus’ Golden Angel)
1931 Kinder vor Gericht (Children in Court)

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