Biography
Günther Rittau was a German cinematographer and film director. Born on 7 August 1893 in Königshütte, Upper Silesia (now Chorzów, Poland), he studied natural sciences in Berlin before joining the documentary film department at Decla-Bioscop in 1919, where he developed techniques for trick photography and trained as a camera operator.
From the mid-1920s he worked on major silent films, serving as second cameraman on Fritz Lang’s Die Nibelungen (1924) alongside Carl Hoffmann and contributing to the innovative special effects photography on Metropolis (1927) with Karl Freund and Eugen Schüfftan. He was cinematographer on further Weimar-era productions including Asphalt (1929) and The Blue Angel (1930). Rittau later directed several features, notably the 1941 propaganda film U-Boote westwärts!, and received the Filmband in Gold award in 1967. He died on 6 August 1971 in Munich.
