90-504: The term von ( [fɔn] ) is used in German surnames either as a nobiliary particle indicating a noble patrilineality , or as a simple preposition used by commoners that means ' of ' or ' from ' . Nobility directories like the Almanach de Gotha often abbreviate the noble term von to v. In medieval or early modern names, the von particle
180-410: A patronymic system as they survive in parts of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, but these do not form part of the official name. Women traditionally adopted their husband's name upon marriage and would occasionally retain their maiden name by hyphenation , in a so-called Doppelname , e.g. " Else Lasker-Schüler ". Recent legislation motivated by gender equality now allows a married couple to choose
270-571: A surname ( Nachname, Familienname ). The Vorname is usually gender-specific. A name is usually cited in the " Western order " of "given name, surname". The most common exceptions are alphabetized list of surnames, e.g. " Bach, Johann Sebastian ", as well as some official documents and spoken southern German dialects . In most of this, the German conventions parallel the naming conventions in most of Western and Central Europe, including English , Dutch , Italian , and French . There are some vestiges of
360-603: A Chinese Laundry , was published. Josef von Sternberg was born Jonas Sternberg to an impoverished Orthodox Jewish family in Vienna , at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire . When Sternberg was three years old, his father Moses Sternberg, a former soldier in the army of Austria-Hungary, moved to the United States to seek work. Sternberg's mother, Serafine ( née Singer), a circus performer as
450-519: A German reading the name: Marquard , pronounced French pronunciation: [maʁkaʁ] in French, ended up being pronounced German pronunciation: [ˈmaʁkvaʁt] much like the German Markwart from which it was originally derived. Traditionally, the wife adopts her husband's Nachname on marriage and drops her own. However, due to the legal equality of sexes, the opposite
540-660: A child joined Moses in America in 1901 with her five children when Sternberg was seven. On his emigration, von Sternberg is quoted as saying, "On our arrival in the New World we were first detained on Ellis Island where the immigration officers inspected us like a herd of cattle." Jonas attended public school until the family, except Moses, returned to Vienna three years later. Throughout his life, Sternberg carried vivid memories of Vienna and nostalgia for some of his "happiest childhood moments." The elder Sternberg insisted upon
630-412: A director with The Salvation Hunters , an independent picture produced with actor George K. Arthur . The picture, filmed on the minuscule budget of $ 4,800 – "a miracle of organization" – made a tremendous impression on actor-director-producer Charles Chaplin and co-producer Douglas Fairbanks Sr. of United Artists (UA). Influenced by the works of Erich von Stroheim, director of Greed (1924),
720-405: A divorce from her spouse that included charges of mental and physical abuse, in which Sternberg "seems to have acted a husband's role on the model his [abusive] father provided." The pair remarried in 1928, but the relationship continued to deteriorate, ending in a second and final divorce on June 5, 1931. In the summer of 1927, Paramount producer B. P. Schulberg offered, and Sternberg accepted,
810-554: A fascinated public with salacious hints about her private life and adding to the star's glamor and notoriety. The fan press inserted an erotic component into her collaboration with Sternberg, encouraging Trilby-Svengali analogies. The publicity tended to distract critics from the genuine merits of the five movies that would follow and overshadowing the significance of Sternberg's lifetime cinematic output. Morocco serves as Sternberg's exploration of Dietrich's aptitude for conveying onscreen his own obsession with "feminine mystique",
900-757: A large number of forenames, often six or more. This fashion was to some extent copied by the bourgeois class , but subsided again after the end of the 19th century, so that while two or three forenames remain common, a larger number is now rare. The practice persists among German nobility, e.g. Johann Friedrich Konrad Carl Eduard Horst Arnold Matthias, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, Duke of Saxony (b. 1952), Ernst August Albert Paul Otto Rupprecht Oskar Berthold Friedrich-Ferdinand Christian-Ludwig, Prince of Hanover (b. 1954), Christian Heinrich Clemens Paul Frank Peter Welf Wilhelm-Ernst Friedrich Franz Prince of Hanover and Dukelin, Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg (b. 1985). Traditionally, there are dialectal differences between
990-540: A major production based on journalist Ben Hecht 's story about Chicago gangsters: Underworld . This film is arguably regarded as the first "gangster" movie, to the extent that it portrayed a criminal protagonist as tragic hero destined by fate to meet a violent death. In Sternberg's hands the "journalistic observations" provided by Hecht's narrative are abandoned and substituted with a fantasy gangsterland that sprang "solely from Sternberg's imagination." Underworld , "clinical and Spartan" in its cinematic technique made
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#17327650698491080-439: A mystique that allowed for a sexual interplay blurring the distinction between male and female gender stereotypes. Sternberg demonstrates his fluency in the visual vocabulary of love: Dietrich dresses in drag and kisses a pretty female; Cooper flourishes a ladies' fan and places a rose behind his ear. In terms of romantic complexity, Morocco "is Sternberg's Hollywood movie par excellence ". The box-office success of Morocco
1170-591: A number of movies for the short-lived Alliance Film Corporation in London, including The Bohemian Girl (1922). When he returned to California in 1924, he began work on his first Hollywood movie as assistant to director Roy William Neill 's Vanity's Price , produced by Film Booking Office (FBO). Sternberg's aptitude for effective directing was recognized in his handling of the operating room scene, singled out for special mention by New York Times critic Mordaunt Hall . The 30-year-old Sternberg made his debut as
1260-439: A position as "technical advisor for lighting and photography." Sternberg was tasked with salvaging director Frank Lloyd 's Children of Divorce , a movie that the studio executives had written off as "worthless". Working "three [consecutive] days of 20-hour shifts" Sternberg reconceived and reshot half the picture and presented Paramount with "a critical and box-office success." Impressed, Paramount arranged for Sternberg to film
1350-462: A rigorous study of the Hebrew language, limiting his son to religious studies on top of his regular schoolwork. Biographer Peter Baxter, citing Sternberg's memoirs, reports that "his parents' relationship was far from happy: his father was a domestic tyrant and his mother eventually fled her home in order to escape his abuse." Sternberg's early struggles, including these "childhood traumas" would inform
1440-411: A romance set in sordid and brutal environs. Of Sternberg's nine films he completed in the silent era, only four are known to exist today in any archive. That Sternberg's output suffers from "lost film syndrome" makes a comprehensive evaluation of his silent oeuvre impossible. Despite this, Sternberg stands as the great "Romantic artist" of this period in film history. A particularly unfortunate loss
1530-410: A significant impression on French filmmakers: Underworld was surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel 's favorite film. With Underworld , Sternberg demonstrated his "commercial potential" to the studios, delivering an enormous box-office hit and Academy Award winner (for Best Original Story). Paramount provided Sternberg with lavish budgets for his next four films. Some historians point to Underworld as
1620-408: A special case, as they were introduced later, in the late 18th to early 19th century, per fiat . The Prussian authorities imposed made-up and sometimes derogatory names. For instance, the name "Waldlieferant" (lit.: forest supplier) was "created" to ridicule a Jewish timber trader. Even way more offensive expressions ("Afterduft"; lit.: anus odor) were in use. This is by no means the rule, though; on
1710-570: A subordinate capacity, coincided with the filming and/or release of D. W. Griffith 's Broken Blossoms , Charlie Chaplin 's Sunnyside , Erich von Stroheim 's The Devil's Pass Key , Cecil B. DeMille 's Male and Female , Robert Wiene 's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , Victor Sjöström 's Karin Daughter of Ingmar and Abel Gance 's J'accuse . Sternberg travelled widely in Europe between 1922 and 1924, where he participated in making
1800-447: A tale of a sexually obsessed middle-class youth ( Phillips Holmes ) whose deceptions lead to the death of a poor factory girl ( Sylvia Sidney ). Dreiser was outraged at Sternberg's failure to adhere to his themes in the adaptation and sued Paramount to stop distribution of the movie, but lost his case. Images of water abound in the film and serve as a motif signaling Holmes' motivations and fate. The photography by Lee Garmes invested
1890-471: A vehicle to commercially exploit the "mystique and glamor" with which they had endowed the Sternberg-Dietrich productions. While Dietrich was visiting her husband, Rudolf Sieber and their daughter Maria Riva in Europe during the winter of 1930–31, Paramount enlisted Sternberg to film an adaption of novelist Theodore Dreiser 's novel An American Tragedy . The production was initially under
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#17327650698491980-476: Is a Woman (1935). The stories are typically set in exotic locales including Saharan Africa , World War I Austria, revolutionary China, Imperial Russia, and fin-de-siècle Spain. Sternberg's "outrageous aestheticism " is on full display in these richly stylized works, both in technique and scenario. The actors in various guises represent figures from Sternberg's "emotional biography", the wellspring for his poetic dreamscapes. Sternberg, largely indifferent to
2070-433: Is a sustained romp through the vicissitudes of spy-versus-spy deception and desire. The feature closes with the melodramatic military execution of Dietrich's Agent X-27 (based on Dutch spy Mata Hari ), the love-struck femme fatale , a scene that balances "gallantry and ghoulishness." Dishonored had not met with the studio's profit expectations at the box-office, and Paramount New York executives were struggling to find
2160-407: Is beyond reproach or ridicule ... The Blue Angel stands up today as Sternberg's most efficient achievement ..." Sternberg's romantic infatuation with his new star created difficulties on and off the set. Jannings strenuously objected to Sternberg's lavish attention to Dietrich's performance, at the elder actor's expense. Indeed, the "tragic irony of The Blue Angel " was "paralleled in real life by
2250-488: Is hard to believe that [Sternberg] had no part in the ennobling." Sternberg would ruefully comment that the elitist "von" drew criticism during the 1930s, when his "lack of realist social themes" would be interpreted as anti-egalitarian. Sternberg served his apprenticeship years with early silent filmmakers, including Hugo Ballin , Wallace Worsley , Lawrence C. Windom and Roy William Neill . In 1919, Sternberg worked with director Emile Chautard 's on The Mystery of
2340-455: Is possible as well, though rare. A few examples of the practice under German law, if "Herr (Mr) Schmidt" and "Frau (Miss) Meyer" marry: All children of a family have to receive the same non-hyphenated Nachname at birth, which may be either the mother's or the father's Nachname (traditionally it was the father's). If the parents adopted an Ehename this is the Nachname of the child. It
2430-484: Is sometimes the second or third name in the sequence of given names on official record, even though it is the given name in daily use from childhood. For example, in the resume submitted by mathematician Emmy Noether to Erlangen University in 1907, the underlining of Emmy communicates that this is the Rufname , even though it is the second of two official given names. In Germany, the chosen name must be approved by
2520-487: Is strictly forbidden to give children Doppelnamen if it is not the Ehename . The latter case can arise with traditional aristocratic Doppelnamen (e.g. Faber-Castell). In Austria (§ 93 ABGB), a couple can choose either of their surnames as married name. In the default case, this is the surname of the groom. The partner who is changing surnames (usually the bride) has the possibility to use their unmarried name alongside
2610-439: Is that of The Case of Lena Smith , his last silent movie, and described as "Sternberg's most successful attempt at combining a story of meaning and purpose with his very original style." The film fell victim to the emerging talkie enthusiasm and was largely ignored by American critics, but in Europe "its reputation is still high after decades of obscurity." The Austrian Film Museum has assembled archival material to reconstruct
2700-651: The Uradel , bear surnames without the rather young nobiliary particle von but are nevertheless still noble. Also, a very few German families were elevated to the nobility without use of the preposition von . This was the case of the Riedesel Freiherren zu Eisenbach who received baronial dignity in 1680. In order to distinguish themselves from bearers of regionally frequent non-noble surnames containing von , nobles in Northern Germany continue
2790-670: The 1770s it became standard practice for every Danish military officer to put "von" in front of his surname. "Von" in this context can be said to be a characteristic of the nobility of the sword – a class that was not otherwise represented in Denmark. This practice was inspired by the Prussian military, where most officers belonged to the landed gentry . The use of von became so widespread that government authorities used it in official letters, but it never received any real recognition. The German dictionary Duden recommends capitalizing
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2880-683: The Baltic region , and the state-supported immigration of Germans into Russia, such as the Volga Germans . As a rule, the members of the local nobility who found themselves in Russia as a result of geopolitical shifts preserved their privileges in the Empire. Their surnames were listed in the State Register of Noble Families as soon as the required documents were provided. The particle von
2970-521: The Late Middle Ages . Many of such surnames are derived from nicknames . They are generally classified into four groups by derivation : given names, occupational designations, bodily attributes, and toponyms (including references to named buildings). Also, many family names display characteristic features of the dialect of the region they originated in. The preposition von ("of") was used to distinguish nobility ; for example, if someone
3060-491: The Nordic countries , von is common but not universal in the surnames of noble families of German origin and has occasionally been used as a part of names of ennobled families of native or foreign (but non-German) extraction, as with the family of the philosopher Georg Henrik von Wright , which is of Scottish origin , or as with the family of the painter Carl Frederik von Breda , who was of Dutch ancestry . In Denmark , from
3150-473: The nobiliary particle von (meaning "of") or zu (meaning "to", sometimes "at"), often von und zu are also found together (meaning "of and to/at"). The legal rules for these names are the same as those for other Nachnamen , which gives rise to a number of cases where people legally bear such names but are not recognized by the associations of formerly noble families in Germany , which continue to apply
3240-612: The "only occasion that Chaplin entrusted another director with one of his own productions." Chaplin had detected a Dickensian quality in Sternberg's representation of his characters and mise-en-scène in The Salvation Hunters and wished to see the young director expand on these elements in the film. The original title, The Sea Gull , was retitled A Woman of the Sea to invoke the earlier A Woman of Paris . Chaplin
3330-413: The "unique subject matter of his films." In 1908, when Jonas was fourteen, he returned with his mother to Queens , New York, and settled in the United States. He acquired American citizenship in 1908. After a year, he stopped attending Jamaica High School and began working in various occupations, including millinery apprentice, door-to-door trinket salesman and stock clerk at a lace factory. At
3420-496: The 17th century his descendants wrote their surnames as Russian: Фон Висин (which preserved the German spelling rather than the Russian pronunciation: [fɐn ˈvʲisʲɪn] ). c. 1660 one of them added -ov (Russian: Фон Висинов , Russian pronunciation: [fɐn ˈvʲisʲɪnəf] ), yet in the 18th century this suffix was lost, and the middle consonant changed again s → z (Russian: Фон-Визин , which preserves
3510-421: The 1990s, there has however been a trend of parents picking non-German forms of names, either for originality, or influenced by international celebrities, e.g. Liam (Gaelic form of William ) rather than the German equivalent Wilhelm and Mila . Most surnames are derived either from given names ( patronym ), occupations, or from geographical origin, less often from bodily attributes. They became heritable with
3600-602: The Fifth Avenue lace outlet, he became familiar with the ornate textiles with which he would adorn his female stars and embellish his mise-en-scène . In 1911, when he turned seventeen, the now "Josef" Sternberg, became employed at the World Film Company in Fort Lee, New Jersey. There, he "cleaned, patched and coated motion picture stock" – and served evenings as a movie theatre projectionist. In 1914, when
3690-418: The German pronunciation rather than spelling: Russian pronunciation: [fɐn ˈvʲizʲɪn] ). Finally, in the 18th century Ivan Fonvizin decided to merge the particle von with the core, thus giving a start to a new Russian family of German origin. His son, Denis Fonvizin (Russian: Фонви́зин , Russian pronunciation: [fɐnˈvʲizʲɪn] ) became a playwright whose plays are staged today. In
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3780-496: The M-G-M sets to the consternation of production managers. When Sternberg returned from a sojourn in Europe following his disappointing tenure at M-G-M in 1925, Charles Chaplin approached him to direct a comeback vehicle for his erstwhile leading lady, Edna Purviance . Purviance had appeared in dozens of Chaplin's films, but had not had a serious leading role since the much admired picture A Woman of Paris (1923). This would mark
3870-543: The Yellow Room , for which he received official screen credit as assistant director. Sternberg honored Chautard in his memoirs, recalling the French director's invaluable lessons on photography, film composition and the importance of establishing "the spatial integrity of his images." This advice led Sternberg to develop his distinctive "framing" of each shot to become "the screen's greatest master of pictorial composition." Sternberg's 1919 debut in filmmaking, though in
3960-514: The augmentation when Sternberg was assistant director and screenwriter for Roy W. Neill's By Devine Right (1923) in hopes that it would "enhance his screen credit" and add "artistic prestige" to the film. Director Erich von Stroheim , also from a poor Viennese family and Sternberg's beau idéal , had attached a faux "von" to his professional name. Although Sternberg emphatically denied any foreknowledge of Dexter's largesse, film historian John Baxter maintains that "knowing his respect for Stroheim it
4050-465: The beginning of central demographic records in the early modern period . The Vorname (in English forename ) is usually given to a child by the parents shortly after birth. It is common to give a child several Vornamen (forenames), one of them intended for everyday use and known as the Rufname ("appellation name" or "call name"). This Rufname is often underlined on official documents, as it
4140-597: The company was purchased by actor and film producer William A. Brady , Sternberg rose to chief assistant, responsible for "writing [inter]titles and editing films to cover lapses in continuity" for which he received his first official film credits. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, he joined the U.S. Army and was assigned to the Signal Corps headquartered in Washington, D.C., where he photographed training films for recruits. Shortly after
4230-449: The concept of a surname did not start to come into common usage until later on. Nevertheless, it was mostly aristocrats and other land owners who acquired a surname consisting of von , zu or zur and a toponym . When families were raised to nobility later on, the prefix was added in front of their existing name whatever its source, e.g. von Goethe . In some cases, even an existing non-noble von became noble, or vice versa, therefore
4320-605: The contrary, those surnames most quickly recognized as probably Jewish in origin are distinctly poetical ones, probably as they were made-up choices by the people themselves (e.g. Rosenzweig ). Immigration, often sponsored by local authorities, also brought foreign family names into the German-speaking regions. Depending on regional history, geography and economics, many family names have French , Dutch , Italian , Hungarian or Slavic (e.g. Polish ) origins. Sometimes they survived in their original form; in other cases,
4410-441: The direction of preeminent Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein . His socially deterministic filmic treatment of the novel was rejected by Paramount, and Eisenstein withdrew from the project. Already heavily invested financially in the production, the studio authorized a complete revision of the planned feature. While retaining Dreiser's basic plot and dialogue, Sternberg eliminated its contemporary sociological underpinnings to present
4500-573: The effect of obscuring the motivations of his characters. Released from his contract with United Artists, and regarded as a rising talent in Hollywood, Sternberg was sought after by the major movie studios. Signing an eight-film agreement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925, Sternberg entered into "the increasingly rigid studio system" at M-G-M, where films were subordinated to market considerations and judged on profitability. Sternberg would clash with Metro executives over his approach to filmmaking:
4590-433: The film, including a 5-minute print fragment discovered in 2005. Paramount moved quickly to adapt Sternberg's next feature, Thunderbolt , for sound release in 1929. An underworld melodrama-musical, its soundtrack employs innovative asynchronous and contrapuntal aural effects, often for comic relief. Thunderbolt garnered leading man George Bancroft a Best Actor Award nomination , but Sternberg's future with Paramount
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#17327650698494680-444: The first of Sternberg's accommodations to the studio profit system, whereas others note that the film marks the emergence of Sternberg's distinctive personal style. The movies Sternberg created for Paramount over the next two years – The Last Command (1928), The Drag Net (1928), The Docks of New York (1929) and The Case of Lena Smith (1929), would mark "the most prolific period" of his career and establish him as one of
4770-524: The greatest filmmakers of the late silent era. Contrary to Paramount's expectations, none were very profitable in distribution. The Last Command earned high praise among critics and added luster to Paramount's prestige. The film had the added benefit of forging collaborative relations between the director and its Academy Award-winning star Emil Jannings and producer Erich Pommer , both temporarily on loan from Paramount's sister studio, UFA in Germany. Before embarking on his next feature, Sternberg, at
4860-423: The local Standesamt (civil registry office). Although a 1980 law previously stated that the name must indicate the gender of the child, a 2008 court ruling unanimously upheld the right of parents to decide their child's name, stating that the only legal limitation is that the name does not negatively affect the well-being of the child. Among German nobility , a fashion arose in the early modern period to give
4950-530: The local dialects, such as the south German, Austrian and Swiss diminutive endings -l -el , -erl , -le or -li as in Kleibl , Schäuble or Nägeli (from 'Nagel', nail). The same is true for regional variants in the naming of professions. While a barrel-maker from Hamburg may have been called "Böttcher", a Bavarian could easily have been called "Schäffler". The surnames of the German Jews are
5040-547: The main surname element, such as von Werden → Vonwerden . "Untitled" and "non-noble" are not synonyms in the German-speaking world. However, most German nobles used von and most users of von were noble. Nonetheless, desiring to add cachet to their perceived lineages in the era since titles of nobility were abolished, some individuals of no titled descent chose to add the particle to their name, such as movie directors Josef von Sternberg , Erich von Stroheim , and Lars von Trier . Some very old noble families, usually members of
5130-454: The married name with hyphenation. In Switzerland (Art. 160 ZGB), the couple can opt to both retain their unmarried name, or the couple can choose to use either surname as their married name. If both retain their name, they need to declare which will be the surname of any future children. Titles of former aristocrats (like Graf for "Count") have become parts of the Nachname in Germany, giving longer names of several words, usually including
5220-530: The movie was lauded by cineastes for its "unglamorous realism", depicting three young drifters who struggle to survive in a dystopian landscape. Despite its considerable defects, due in part to Sternberg's budgetary constraints, the picture was purchased by United Artists for $ 20,000 and given a brief distribution, but fared poorly at the box-office. On the strength of this picture alone, actor-producer Mary Pickford of UA engaged Sternberg to write and direct her next feature. His screenplay, entitled Backwash ,
5310-458: The names of nearly all the families falling into this category did include von , zu , von und zu , von der , von dem , zum , vom und zum or zur . The preposition originated among German speakers during the Middle Ages and was commonly used to signify a person's origins, appending the name of the place they originated from (see toponymic surname ), or the name of their parents, as
5400-475: The old rules of the German Empire in their publications. Most of these cases come about when a woman of noble descent marries a man with no title, and the two adopt the woman's name as their common Nachname , which was impossible under imperial law. Josef von Sternberg Josef von Sternberg ( German: [ˈjoːzɛf fɔn ˈʃtɛʁnbɛʁk] ; born Jonas Sternberg ; May 29, 1894 – December 22, 1969)
5490-502: The particle von , e.g. Grote [ de ] , Knigge [ de ] or Vincke . In order to distinguish the noble von from the non-noble one, the Prussian military abbreviated it to v. in noble names, often without a space following it, whereas the non-noble von was always spelled in full. In the 19th century in Austria and Bavaria, non-noble surnames containing von were widely altered by compounding it with
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#17327650698495580-515: The phone book rather than V ). In Austria, in contrast, not only were the privileges of the nobility abolished, their titles and prepositions were abolished as well in 1919. Thus, for example, Friedrich von Hayek became simply Friedrich Hayek . (See also Austrian nobility on this issue.) In contrast to the peerage of the United Kingdom, the aristocracies of the German-speaking countries were held to include untitled nobility, although
5670-536: The picture as a form of art and the director a visual poet. These conflicting priorities would "doom" their association, as Sternberg "had little interest in making a commercial success." Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer first assigned Sternberg to adapt author Alden Brooks ' novel Escape , retitled The Exquisite Sinner . A romance set in post- World War I Brittany , the movie was withheld from release for failing to clearly set forth its narrative, though M-G-M acknowledged its photographic beauty and artistic merit. Sternberg
5760-621: The prefix von at the beginning of the sentence, but not in its abbreviated form, in order to avoid confusion with an abbreviated first name. However the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung style guide recommends omitting the von completely at the beginning of the sentence. Examples, meaning "Von Humboldt came later.": German name Personal names in German-speaking Europe consist of one or several given names ( Vorname , plural Vornamen ) and
5850-493: The regions of German-speaking Europe, especially visible in the forms of hypocorisms . These differences are still perceptible in the list of most popular names, even though they are marginalized by super-regional fashionable trends: As of 2012, the top ten given names of Baden-Württemberg (Southern Germany) and of Schleswig-Holstein (Northern Germany) share the entries Ben, Paul, Finn, Luca, Max (male), Mia, Emma, Lea, Leonie, Anna, Lena, Hanna , while Schleswig-Holstein retains
5940-702: The remaining parts of their surnames, immigrants to the Tsarist and Imperial Russia did not lose their noble particles, although some of their core surnames may have experienced some minor changes. At the end of the 16th century, after the Livonian War , Ivan IV of Russia invited Baron Berndt von Wiesen ( German pronunciation: [fɔn viːzən] ) from the Livonian Brothers of the Sword into Russian service and granted him some landed property . In
6030-479: The request of impresario Max Reinhardt to explore an offer to manage stage productions, but discovered he was not suited to the task. Sternberg went to England, where he rendezvoused with Riza Royce, a New York actress originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who had served as an assistant on the ill-fated A Woman of the Sea . They wed on July 6, 1927. Sternberg and Royce would have a tempestuous marriage spanning three years. In August 1928, Riza von Sternberg obtained
6120-550: The rise of Dietrich and the fall of Jannings" in their respective careers. Riza von Sternberg, who accompanied her spouse to Berlin, discerned that director and star were sexually involved. When Dietrich arrived in the United States in April 1930, Mrs. von Sternberg personally presented her with $ 100,000 libel lawsuits for public remarks made by the star that her marriage was failing, and a $ 500,000 suit for alienation of [Josef] Sternberg's affections. The Sternberg-Dietrich-Royce scandal
6210-518: The royal Prussian military practice of abbreviating the noble von to v. but spelling the non-noble von in full. Generally, the growth of the Tsardom of Russia into the Russian Empire was accompanied by the inflow of German surnames. Two main channels of such migration were the absorption of territories where Germans constituted a part of local nobility, such as Finland , Poland , and
6300-623: The same surname sometimes would be shared by noble and non-noble individuals. Especially in the Northwest (Bremen, Hamburg, Holstein, Lower Saxony, Schleswig, Westphalia) and in German-speaking Switzerland, von is a frequent element in non-noble surnames. About 200 to 300 known non-noble surnames contain the element von . On the other hand, especially in Lower Saxony, several prominent noble surnames do not contain
6390-570: The scenes with emotional intensity. He is also credited with having initiated the gangster film genre with his silent era movie Underworld (1927). Sternberg's themes typically offer the spectacle of an individual's desperate struggle to maintain their personal integrity as they sacrifice themselves for lust or love. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for Morocco (1930) and Shanghai Express (1932). Shortly before his death in 1969, his autobiography, Fun in
6480-590: The spelling would be adapted to German (the Slavic ending ic becoming the German -itz or -itsch or Baltic "-kis" becoming "-ke"). Over time, the spelling often changed to reflect native German pronunciation ( Sloothaak for the Dutch Sloothaag ); but some names, such as those of French Huguenots settling in Prussia , retained their spelling but with the pronunciation that would come naturally to
6570-535: The studio publicity or to his movies' commercial success, enjoyed a degree of control over these pictures that permitted him to conceive and execute these works with Dietrich. Seeking to capitalize on the immense European success of The Blue Angel , though not yet released to American audiences, Paramount launched the Hollywood production of Morocco , an intrigue-romance starring Gary Cooper , Dietrich and Adolphe Menjou . The all-out promotional campaign declared Dietrich "the woman all women want to see", providing
6660-449: The studio's behest, agreed to "cut down to manageable length" fellow director Erich von Stroheim's The Wedding March . Sternberg's willingness to accept the assignment had the unhappy side effect of "destroying" his relationship with von Stroheim. The Drag Net , a lost film, is believed to be a sequel to Underworld . The Docks of New York , "today the most popular of Sternberg's silent films", combines both spectacle and psychology in
6750-560: The surname they want to use, including an option for men to keep their birthname hyphenated to the common family name in the same way. It is also possible for the spouses to do without a common surname altogether and to keep their birthnames. The most common given names are either Biblical (" Christian ", derived from names of Biblical characters or saints; Johann/Hans "John", Georg/Jörg "George", Jakob "Jacob" and "James"; Anna , Maria , Barbara , Christina ) or from Germanic names ( Friedrich "Frederick", Ludwig "Louis", etc.) Since
6840-406: The surnames of the people who used it. There are no longer any legal privileges or constraints associated with this naming convention. According to German alphabetical sorting, people with von in their surnames – of noble or non-noble descent alike – are listed in telephone books and other files under the rest of their names (e.g., the economist Ludwig von Mises would have been found under M in
6930-3183: The traditionally northern (Low German) forms Lasse (male) and Neele (female) in the top ten. The following table gives the most popular given names in Germany for every tenth year (since 1890). Anna, Martha / Marta, Frieda / Frida, Berta / Beertha, Emma, Marie, Maria, Margarethe / Margarete, Erna, Elsa Carl / Karl, Wilhelm, Otto, Heinrich, Friedrich, Paul, Hans, Gustav, Max, Ernst Anna, Martha / Marta, Frieda / Frida, Emma, Marie, Elisabeth, Maria, Berta / Bertha, Gertrud, Margarethe / Margarete Wilhelm, Carl / Karl, Heinrich, Hermann, Friedrich, Paul, Otto, Ernst, Hans, Walter / Walther Gertrud, Erna, Martha / Marta, Hertha / Herta, Margarethe / Margarete, Anna, Käthe, Elisabeth, Frieda / Frida, Hildegard, Walter / Walther, Carl / Karl, Hans, Wilhelm, Otto, Curt / Kurt, Heinrich, Hermann, Paul, Helmut / Helmuth Ilse, Hildegard, Gertrud, Irmgard, Gerda, Lieselotte, Elfriede, Ursula, Edith, Erna Hans, Carl / Karl, Heinz, Curt / Kurt, Werner, Walter / Walther, Günter / Günther, Herbert, Helmut / Helmuth, Gerhard, Rolf Ursula, Helga, Gisela, Inge, Gerda, Ingrid, Ingeborg, Ilse, Edith, Hildegard Günter / Günther, Hans, Carl / Karl, Heinz, Werner, Gerhard, Horst, Helmut / Helmuth, Walter / Walther, Curt / Kurt, Rolf Karin, Ingrid, Helga, Renate, Elke, Ursula, Erika, Christa, Gisela, Monika Peter, Klaus / Claus, Hans, Jürgen, Dieter, Günter / Günther, Horst, Manfred, Uwe, Wolfgang Brigitte, Renate, Karin, Angelika, Monika, Ursula, Ingrid, Marion, Barbara, Gisela, Regina Peter, Hans, Wolfgang, Klaus / Claus, Manfred, Jürgen, Michael, Bernd, Werner, Günter / Günther Sabine, Susanne, Petra, Birgit, Gabriele, Andrea, Martina, Ute, Heike, Angelika Thomas, Michael, Andreas, Peter, Frank, Uwe, Klaus / Claus, Stefan / Stephan, Jürgen, Jörg Nicole, Anja, Claudia, Stefanie / Stephanie, Andrea, Tanja, Katrin / Catrin / Kathrin, Susanne, Petra, Sabine Stefan / Stephan, Michael, Andreas, Thomas, Frank, Markus / Marcus, Christian, Oliver, Matthias, Torsten Julia, Katrin / Catrin / Kathrin, Stefanie / Stephanie, Melanie, Sandra, Anja, Nicole, Nadine, Christina, Sabrina Christian, Michael, Sebastian, Stefan / Stephan, Jan, Daniel, Martin, Dennis, Alexander, Thomas Julia, Sarah / Sara, Jennifer, Katharina, Lisa, Christina, Jessika / Jessica, Anna, Laura, Melanie Jan, Tobias, Christian, Alexander, Daniel, Patrick, Dennis, Sebastian, Marcel, Philipp Anna, Lea / Leah, Sarah / Sara, Hannah / Hanna, Michelle, Laura, Lisa, Lara, Lena, Julia Lukas / Lucas, Jan, Tim, Finn / Fynn, Leon, Niklas / Niclas, Tom, Jonas, Jannik / Yannik / Yannick / Yannic, Luca / Luka Mia, Hannah / Hanna, Lena, Lea / Leah, Emma, Anna, Leonie / Leoni, Lilli / Lilly / Lili, Emily / Emilie, Lina Leon, Lukas / Lucas, Ben, Finn / Fynn, Jonas, Paul, Luis / Louis, Maximilian, Luca / Luka, Felix Mia, Emilia, Hannah / Hanna, Emma, Sofia / Sophia, Lina, Ella, Mila, Clara, Lea / Leah Noah / Noa, Ben, Mateo / Matteo / Matheo / Mattheo, Finn / Fynn, Leon, Elias / Elyas, Paul, Henry / Henri, Luis / Louis, Felix Surnames ( family name ; Nachname , Familienname ) were gradually introduced in German-speaking Europe during
7020-530: The war, Sternberg left Brady's Fort Lee operation and embarked on a peripatetic existence in America and Europe offering his skills "as cutter, editor, writer and assistant director" to various film studios. The Origins of the Sternberg "von" The nobiliary particle "von" – used to indicate a family descending from nobility – was inserted gratuitously to Sternberg's name on the grounds that it served to achieve an orderly configuration of personnel credits. The producer and matinee idol Elliott Dexter suggested
7110-412: The young cabaret singer would reduce him to a "spectacular cuckold." Dietrich became an international star overnight and followed Sternberg to Hollywood to produce six more collaborations at Paramount. Film historian Andrew Sarris contends that The Blue Angel is Sternberg's "most brutal and least humorous" work of his oeuvre and yet the one film that the director's "most severe detractors will concede
7200-603: Was "in and out of the papers", but public awareness of the "ugly scenes" was largely concealed by Paramount executives. On June 5, 1931, the divorce was finalized providing $ 25,000 cash settlement to Mrs. Sternberg and a 5-year annual alimony of $ 1,200. In March 1932, the now divorced Riza Royce dropped her libel and alienation charges against Dietrich. Sternberg and Dietrich would unite to make six brilliant and controversial films for Paramount: Morocco (1930), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express (1932), Blonde Venus (1932), The Scarlet Empress (1934), and The Devil
7290-520: Was an Austrian-born filmmaker whose career successfully spanned the transition from the silent to the sound era, during which he worked with most of the major Hollywood studios. He is best known for his film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich in the 1930s, including the highly regarded Paramount/UFA production The Blue Angel (1930). Sternberg's finest works are noteworthy for their striking pictorial compositions, dense décor, chiaroscuro illumination, and relentless camera motion, endowing
7380-697: Was at times added to commoners' names; thus, Hans von Duisburg meant ' Hans from [the city of] Duisburg ' . This meaning is preserved in Swiss toponymic surnames and in the Dutch van , which is a cognate of von but also does not necessarily indicate nobility. The abolition of the monarchies in Germany and Austria in 1919 meant that neither state has a privileged nobility, and both have exclusively republican governments. In Germany, this means that legally von simply became an ordinary part of
7470-532: Was baron of the village of Veltheim, his family name would be von Veltheim . In modern times, people who were elevated to nobility often had a 'von' added to their name. For example, Johann Wolfgang Goethe had his name changed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . This practice ended with the abolition of the monarchy in Germany and Austria in 1919. Sometimes von is also used in geographical names that are not noble, as in von Däniken . With family names originating locally, many names display particular characteristics of
7560-506: Was deemed to be too experimental in concept and technique, and the Pickford-Sternberg project was cancelled. Sternberg's The Salvation Hunters is "his most explicitly personal work", with the exception of his final picture Anatahan (1953). His distinctive style is already in evidence, both visually and dramatically: veils and nets filter our view of the actors, and "psychological conflict rather than physical action" has
7650-471: Was dismayed by the film Sternberg created with cameraman Paul Ivano , a "highly visual, almost Expressionistic " work, completely lacking in the humanism that he had anticipated. Though Sternberg reshot a number of scenes, Chaplin declined to distribute the picture and the prints were ultimately destroyed. The failure of Sternberg's promising collaboration with Chaplin was a temporary blow to his professional reputation. In June 1926 he travelled to Berlin at
7740-596: Was friendly enough there to keep these surnames from localisation. Meanwhile, some of those whose ancestors individually entered the Russian service from abroad, and who settled themselves in Moscow or the core Russian provinces, sooner or later found it easier to adjust their surnames to the local speaking mode. However, unlike immigrants to English-speaking countries during the 18th to 20th centuries, who usually lost their nobility particles and often simplified and anglicised
7830-714: Was next tasked to direct film stars Mae Murray and Roy D'Arcy in The Masked Bride , both of whom had played in Stroheim's highly acclaimed The Merry Widow (1925). Exasperated with his lack of control over any aspect of the production, Sternberg quit in two weeks – his final gesture turning the camera to the ceiling before walking off the set. Metro arranged a cancellation of his contract in August 1925. Frenchman Robert Florey , Sternberg's assistant director, reported that Sternberg's Stroheim-like histrionics emerged on
7920-445: Was precarious due to the long string of commercial disappointments. Sternberg was summoned to Berlin by Paramount's sister studio, UFA in 1929 to direct Emil Jannings in his first sound production, The Blue Angel . It would be "the most important film" of Sternberg's career. Sternberg cast the then little-known Marlene Dietrich as Lola Lola, the female lead and nemesis of Jannings character Professor Immanuel Rath, whose passion for
8010-472: Was preserved as well; once hyphens came into common use in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was used to connect the von with the following part of the surname (e.g. Russian : Фон-Визин , von-Wiesen). However, since the twentieth century the particle has been written separately, as in the German origin. In the Baltic region, the German language continued to be used alongside Russian, so the language environment
8100-428: Was such that both Sternberg and Dietrich were awarded with contracts for three more films and generous increases in salary. The film earned Academy Award nominations in four categories. Dishonored , Sternberg's second Hollywood film, featuring Dietrich opposite Victor McLaglen , was completed before Morocco was released. A film of considerable levity but plot-wise one of his slightest works, this espionage-thriller
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