Wolfgang Staudte was born in Saarbrücken, in 1906, to parents who were both actors. Six years later, his family moved to Berlin. He trained to be an engineer before he began performing at the Volksbühne in Berlin, where he worked with Max Reinhardt and Erwin Piscator from 1926 to 1932.

As of 1933, Staudte was no longer allowed to act on stage because he had performed in modern plays with “anti-Nazi tendencies.” He took on temporary jobs, producing short films and commercials, dubbing films into German and being a radio announcer for children’s programming. He also took supporting roles in films, including in the anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda film, Jud Süß (1940); later Staudte explained that he had been threatened with losing his “war-exemption” if he did not take the role. The first full-length feature film he directed was Acrobat Won-der-ful (1943). His following film, The Man Whose Name Was Stolen (1944), was banned by the Nazis, and he lost his war-exemption; producer Heinrich George saved him from being sent to the front by employing Staudte as the director of Woman Overboard (1944-45).

In the summer of 1946, Staudte filmed The Murderers Are among Us, the first German film made after WWII. The project had been rejected by officials in the western allied occupation zones, but Staudte found support in the Soviet zone and made the film in the newly established DEFA studios. There he also directed hits like The Kaiser’s Lackey and his international children’s success, The Story of Little Mook. Staudte had harsh confrontations with officials about his film Rotation, however, and after a dispute with Bertolt Brecht about the concept for filming Brecht’s play, Mother Courage and Her Children, Staudte decided to work only in West Germany as of 1956.

Staudte is one of very few German directors who made films in both East and West Germany. Also known as an excellent director for dubbing international films into German, Staudte worked on Eisenstein’s Ivan Grosny immediately after WWII and was Stanley Kubrick’s choice as German dubbing director for A Clockwork Orange (1972) and The Shining (1980).

Staudte was honored with many national and international awards, including: the German Film Award in Gold for his outstanding contribution to German film, the Silver Lion in Venice for Ciske de Rat; the Best Director award at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival for Roses for the District Attorney; and the Helmut Käutner Award for his life work, which encompassed over sixty films for cinema and television. He died on January 19, 1984, while filming The Iron Way, a five-part television series.

Selected Filmography: 1984 The Snob (TV); 1978/79 The Iron Gustav (TV series); 1978 Yesterday's Tomorrow (TV); 1971 The Seawolf (TV series); 1970 Gentlemen in White Vests ; 1962 The Three Penny Opera (France/West Germany); 1960 The Last Witness; 1960 Death Carousel; 1959 Roses for the District Attorney; 1958 The Muzzle; 1955 Ciske de Rat (Netherlands/West Germany); 1953 The Story of Little Mook; 1951 The Kaiser's Lackey; 1949 Rotation; 1946 The Murderers Are among Us; 1944/45 Woman Overboard; 1944 The Man Whose Name was Stolen; 1943 Acrobat Won-der-ful.