German nobleman, actor, screenwriter and director, known today for his most enduring role, that of Thomas Hutter (Jonathan Harker) in F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922).
Both of his parents were performers; his father, who used the stage name Eduard von Winterstein, appeared in over 200 films between 1910 and 1960.
Wangenheim made his screen debut in 1914 in Passionels Tagebuch and went on to star in many silent features. Among his works were Fritz Lang’s early science fiction film, Frau im Mond (as “Windegger”), and Karl Heinz Martin’s Das Haus zum Mond.
A member of the Communist Party of Germany since 1921, Wangenheim founded the Communist theatre company Die Truppe ’31 in 1931. Die Truppe ’31 produced three plays, authored and directed by Wangenheim, before it was shut down by order of the Nazi regime in 1933.
Wangenheim fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and found refuge in the Soviet Union. While living in exile at Moscow’s Hotel Lux, he continued writing and producing movies, such as Der Kampf (1936), an anti-Nazi protest film, and was the head of the German language Cabaret “Kolonne Links”.
Wangenheim was a founding member of the National Committee for a Free Germany. After World War II, he returned to East Germany, where he worked for the DEFA as screenwriter and director.
Wangenheim was married to Inge von Wangenheim, née Franke, from 1931 to 1954, when the marriage was annulled. The couple had one son, Friedel von Wangenheim, and 2 daughters, the twins Elisabeth and Eleonora von Wangenheim. Wangenheim died in East Berlin on 5 August 1975, aged 80.
Link to Wikipedia biography