THAT LUBITSCH TOUCH

Today in Berlin: 29 January, 1892

Another day, another page from our Berlin Calendar. Today we are all going to Hollywood:

On 29 January, 1892 Ernst Lubitsch, German film director who later made a career in Hollywood, was born in Berlin. His parents - both Aschkenazi Jews (father, Simon, came from Grodno in today’s Lithuania, while mother, Anna, had her roots in Brandenburg) - lived in Lothringer Str 82a at the time. A street you won’t find on the maps anymore but which still very much exists: in 1951 it was renamed Wilhelm-Pieck-Straße, only to become today’s Torstraße in 1994.

Ernst was Anna’s and Simon’s youngest child, and as the Nesthäkchen (the youngest one) very much disliked by his quite much older siblings. Perhaps that is why he enjoyed comedy and developed such wicked sense of humour - if you cannot fight them, make them laugh.