Karl Vollmöller

Who was Karl Vollmöller?

Karl Gustav Vollmöller, usually written Vollmoeller was a German playwright and screenwriter.

He is most famous for two works, the screenplay for the celebrated 1930 German film Der Blaue Engel, which made a star of Marlene Dietrich, and the elaborate religious spectacle-pantomime Das Mirakel, which he wrote in collaboration with Max Reinhardt, the famous director, and in which he cast his own wife Maria Carmi in the leading role. "The Miracle" retold an old legend about a nun in the Middle Ages who runs away from her convent with a knight, and subsequently has several mystical adventures, eventually leading to her being accused of witchcraft. During her absence, the statue of the Virgin Mary in the convent's chapel comes to life and takes the nun's place in the convent until her safe return. The play opened in Germany in 1911 and subsequently in London and on Broadway in 1924. Filmed twice as a silent movie, it was filmed once again in a much-altered version in widescreen and Technicolor in 1959.