After her writing debut in 1906, von Harbou met Rudolf Klein-Rogge, and later married him in 1914. By 1917, they moved to Berlin where she was devoted, full-time, to building her career as a writer; she was drawn to writing epic myths and legends with an overtly nationalistic tone. In the words of Patrick McGilligan, a Fritz Lang historian, "Her novels became patriotic and morale-boosting, urging women to sacrifice and duty while promoting the eternal glory of the fatherland".
Thea's first close interaction with cinema came when German director Joe May chose to adapt one of her writings, "Die heilige Simplizia." From that moment on, "Her fiction output slowed down. In short order she would become one of Germany's most celebrated film writers, not only because of her partnership with Fritz Lang, but also for writing scripts for F. W. Murnau, Carl Dreyer, E. A. Dupont, and other German luminaries".
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| Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou in their Berlin flat, 1923 or 1924 |
Thea would often take her screenplays and make them into full length novels to coincide with the release of the film, however this was not the case with Metropolis, one of her most famous works. She was an incredibly active player in producing Metropolis, and this epic film became not only one of Fritz Lang's best known films, but one of significance to German cinema. Besides writing the novel, the screenplay, and developing the distinct moral ending of Metropolis, she is credited with discovering Gustav Fröhlich, who plays the lead role of Freder Fredersen.
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| Click HERE for the Metropolis Clock Scene |
This film had so many intertwining messages for future decades that it's almost on par now with the predictions of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. While many of the themes in the film also refer to the dangers of repeating the past (a new Tower of Babel gets built and subsequently destroyed due to a war of the social classes), the bizarre technology predicted in its vision of the future is quite startling.
Her next big production with Fritz Lang would be M, a film about a child murderer, and would be written with incredible attention to accuracy. They had been enthralled with news coverage of Peter Kürten, known as the Monster of Düsseldorf, during the late 1920s. Not only did von Harbou use newspaper articles for the script, but she "maintained regular contact with the police headquarters on Alexanderplatz and was permitted access to the communications and secret publications of Berlin's force".
Recalling the script, von Harbou's secretary, Hilde Guttmann, claims, "I saw many other film manuscripts, but never one which could compare with the manuscript for M. Two typewriter ribbons were stuck together to give us three colors: one black and red, and the other blue. The camera work and the action were typed in black, the dialogue blue, and the sound , where synchronized, was typed in red". Unfortunately, she is uncredited as the script writer for M.
Thea's ability to write for the screen propelled silent German cinema into the spot light. Furthermore, behind the most well-known German directors sat Thea von Harbou writing the action. As Hitler rose to power, the German film industry became more influenced by propaganda-based ideology and Thea remained loyal to new political power. Around 1934, a year after the Nazi Party began leading the nation, Thea took the initiative to write and direct two films, Hanneles Himmelfahrt and Elisabeth und der Narr. However, she did not find the experience of directing to be satisfactory and remained a prolific scenarist during this time.
"Under a regime where every film was a 'state film,' Thea von Harbou amassed writing credits on some 26 films, while giving uncredited assistance on countless others-including a handful with an indisputable National Socialist worldview".
After Thea's marriage to Lang ended in 1933, she married Ayi Tendulkar.
