---
name: "Georg Wilhelm Pabst"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/g-w-pabst"
fi1m_id: "g-w-pabst"
imdb_id: "nm0655065"
tmdb_id: 13899
wikidata_id: "Q55421"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "25 August 1885"
died: "29 May 1967"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-25T00:17:29.742925+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Georg Wilhelm Pabst

## Identity

Georg Wilhelm Pabst

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/g-w-pabst
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** g-w-pabst
- **IMDb ID:** nm0655065
- **TMDB ID:** 13899
- **Wikidata ID:** Q55421
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._W._Pabst, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q55421, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0655065/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13899

Director. Born 25 August 1885 in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Roudnice, Czech Republic). Died 29 May 1967.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 25 August 1885, Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Roudnice, Czech Republic)
- **Died:** 29 May 1967
- **Also known as:** G.W. Pabst, Georg W. Pabst, Г.В. Пабст, Г. В. Пабст, Георг В. Пабст, G. W. Pabst
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._W._Pabst, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q55421, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0655065/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13899

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*Pandora's Box*](https://film.one/film/pandoras-box.md) (88)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Georg Wilhelm Pabst

> Pabst makes people under pressure worth watching, especially the women whom everyone else is busy judging. We recommend him for his handling of actors and his fluid cutting, with a reservation about the moralising in *Pandora’s Box*.

In *Pandora’s Box* (1929), Kortner’s Schön locks his jaw and works his hands while Louise Brooks’s Lulu seems scarcely to be acting at all. We were delighted by her ease beside his visible strain. Pabst lets that difference remain: the men can look emphatic without making the woman at the centre look unreal. His direction of actors and his fluid cutting help make this a silent film we would readily recommend to anyone wary of silent acting. The middle sags and the moralising grates, but Brooks gives us ample reason to stay.

Before Brooks, *Joyless Street* (1925) established his interest in people under economic pressure through its depiction of inflation-era Vienna. Dreams and the unconscious became the subject of *Secrets of a Soul* (1926), and Brooks was also central to *Diary of a Lost Girl* (1929). He was among the early directors to shape performances specifically for the camera, paying attention to what it could register. His habit of cutting on movement helped him move between shots without distracting us from the people in them.

*Pandora’s Box* was written by Pabst with Ladislaus Vajda and its editor, Joseph Fleisler, and its treatment of Lulu’s companions is uneven. Carl Goetz’s Schigolch gets a sly comic life of his own; Francis Lederer’s Alwa has little beyond a boy’s adoration. More troubling is Alice Roberts’s Geschwitz, who wants Lulu for herself and is kept at the edge of the frame. There is room here for more of her and rather less of the men.

His move into sound brought *Westfront 1918* (1930) and *Kameradschaft* (1931), with overlapping dialogue and careful integration of sound and image. The later work attracted complaints of inconsistency and too much readiness to follow prevailing styles. That leaves us cautious about recommending the entire career, but enthusiastic about the work with Brooks. Start with *Pandora’s Box*, and give her a few minutes before deciding that silent cinema is not for you.

## Biography

Georg Wilhelm Pabst (1885–1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. Born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Roudnice, Czech Republic), he studied drama in Vienna and began his career as a stage actor in Switzerland, Austria and Germany before turning to film.

Pabst directed his first film, *The Treasure*, in 1923. He is known for *Joyless Street* (1925), *Pandora's Box* (1929), on which he also received a screenplay credit, *Diary of a Lost Girl* (1929), *Westfront 1918* (1930), *The Threepenny Opera* (1931) and *Comradeship* (1931).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com, moma.org.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Pandora's Box* (1929), Fi1m 88, Screenplay, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/pandoras-box.md)

## Complete filmography (45)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Through the Forests and Through the Trees* (1956), Director
- *Ballerina* (1956), Director
- *It Happened on July 20th* (1955), Director
- *The Last Act* (1955), Director
- *The Confession of Ina Kahr* (1954), Director
- *Crazy Things* (1954), Director
- *Voice of Silence* (1953), Director
- *Call Over the Air* (1951), Director, Producer
- *Meisterringer* (1949), Producer
- *Mysterious Shadows* (1949), Director, Producer
- *The Trial* (1948), Director
- *The Molander Case* (1945), Director
- *Paracelsus* (1943), Director
- *The Comedians* (1941), Director, Writer
- *Pasha's Wives* (1939), Director
- *Girls in Distress* (1939), Director
- *The Shanghai Drama* (1938), Director
- *Street of Shadows* (1937), Director
- *White Hunter* (1936), Writer
- *A Modern Hero* (1934), Director
- *Cette nuit-là* (1933), Director
- *High and Low* (1933), Director
- *Don Quixote* (1933), Director, Producer, Writer
- *The Mistress of Atlantis* (1932), Director
- *Queen of Atlantis* (1932), Director
- *The Mistress of Atlantis* (1932), Director
- *Comradeship* (1931), Director
- *The Threepenny Opera* (1931), Director
- *The 3 Penny Opera* (1931), Director
- *Miss Europe* (1930), Adaptation
- *Morals at Midnight* (1930), Executive Producer
- *Scandalous Eva* (1930), Director
- *Westfront 1918* (1930), Director
- *The White Hell of Pitz Palu* (1929), Director
- *Diary of a Lost Girl* (1929), Director, Producer
- *Pandora's Box* (1929), Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/pandoras-box.md)
- *The Devious Path* (1928), Director, Editor
- *The Love of Jeanne Ney* (1927), Director, Editor
- *One Does Not Play with Love* (1926), Director, Editor
- *Secrets of a Soul* (1926), Director
- *Joyless Street* (1925), Editor, Director
- *Countess Donelli* (1924), Director
- *The Treasure* (1923), Director, Screenplay
- *Der Taugenichts* (1922), Writer
- *Luise Millerin* (1922), Writer

## Gallery

- ![Georg Wilhelm Pabst](https://film.one/media/person/3851283/gallery-961a82d71b53.jpg) Georg Wilhelm Pabst — AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/G.W._Pabst_crop_from_Pabst_Prejean_1931.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Collectie / Archief : Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie : [ onbekend ] Beschrijving : Filmregisseur G. W. Pabst op Schiphol Datum : 28 september 1949 Locati](https://film.one/media/person/3851283/gallery-871920d7fd3b.jpg) Collectie / Archief : Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie : [ onbekend ] Beschrijving : Filmregisseur G. W. Pabst op Schiphol Datum : 28 september 1949 Locati — Daan Noske / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Filmregisseur_G._W._Pabst_op_Schiphol%2C_Bestanddeelnr_903-6310.jpg/1280px-Filmregisseur_G._W._Pabst_op_Schiphol%2C_Bestanddeelnr_903-6310.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![In the front German cinematographer Sepp Allgeier (1895–1968), behind him Georg Wilhelm Pabst (1885–1967) in 1929 doing shooting for the movie Diary of a Lost G](https://film.one/media/person/3851283/gallery-f48ce06a8b8b.jpg) In the front German cinematographer Sepp Allgeier (1895–1968), behind him Georg Wilhelm Pabst (1885–1967) in 1929 doing shooting for the movie Diary of a Lost G — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Allgeier_pabst_swinemuende_1929.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/g-w-pabst