Next to Fritz Lang and G. W. Pabst, motion picture director F. W. Murnau (1888-1931) was one of just three directors responsible for revolutionizing German silent cinema during the 1920s.

Born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe, F. W. Murnau was the son of Heinrich Plumpe, a textile manufacturer, and Plumpe's second wife, Otilie. Born in Bielefeld, Westphalia, Germany, on December 28, 1888, he adopted the stage name "Murnau" as a young man, both as an attempt to hide his theatrical ambitions from his unsupportive father and as homage to the famed artists' colony south of Munich. The town of Murnau provided a creative haven for some of the expressionist period's most notable figures, including Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and others associated with the Blaue Reiter ("Blue Rider") movement of 1911-1914.

In 1892 the Plumpe family moved to Kassel, where young Murnau attended secondary school. During this period he frequented local museums, an activity...