Born in Frankfurt in 1887, Walter Ruttmann studied architecture and painting, served as an artillery officer in the First World War, and began making films after a spell in hospital in 1917. He made some of the first abstract animated films, the Lichtspiel: Opus series, then the city symphony Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927), his best-known work. His later Weekend (1930) was a film made purely of sound, built from recorded Berlin street noise. He was replaced on Triumph of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl and died in Berlin in 1941.
Filmography
- Lichtspiel: Opus I (1921)
- Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927)
- Melody of the World (1929)
- Weekend (1930) (1930)