Moriz Seeler

Who was Moriz Seeler?

Moriz Seeler was a German poet, writer, film producer, and man of the theatre. He was also a victim of the Holocaust.

Seeler was born at the small, provincial town of Greifenberg in Pomerania, Germany, to a Jewish family. He moved to Berlin at the age of 15. His first verses are said to have been published as early as 1917–1918; the first collection of poems, Dem Hirtenknaben, was issued in Berlin in 1919; another one, entitled Die Flut, saw the light of day in Vienna in 1937.

He is perhaps best known as the founding father of the Junge Bühne, an avant‑garde matinee-theatre which came into being in Berlin in the spring of 1922. In 1927 he co‑authored the libretto to Friedrich Hollaender’s cabaret Bei uns um die Gedächtniskirche rum. In June 1929 he co‑founded Filmstudio 1929, a Berlin production house. In 1929–1930 he co‑produced, together with Heinrich Nebenzahl, the silent quasi-documentary film Menschen am Sonntag, directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Brigitte Borchert and Erwin Splettstößer, which shows a candid picture of life in Weimar-era Germany that was soon to vanish for ever.