Editing Fritz Lang (section)

==Early life==
Lang was born in [[Vienna]], as the second son of Anton Lang (1860–1940),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.architektenlexikon.at/de/345.htm |title=Architekturzentrum Wien |publisher=Architektenlexikon.at |access-date=March 6, 2010}}</ref> an architect and construction company manager, and his wife Pauline "Paula" Lang ({{née}} Schlesinger; 1864–1920). There is no documented evidence of the true identity of Anton Lang's biological father; he was born as an illegitimate child of a maid from Moravia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fritz Lang |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/mcgilligan-lang.html?scp=7&sq=hans%20lang&st=cse |website=New York Times |quote=In latter-day books and articles about his world-famous son, Anton Lang is usually described as an architect. In fact, Baumeister, a German word often confused and translated as "architect" in English and French, means more precisely that Lang's father was a builder or executor of architectural plans. He had the additional honorific, in city archives, of Stadtbaumeister, which simply meant that he was licensed to appear as a project manager before Vienna municipal boards.}}</ref> Anton Lang was described as a "lapsed Catholic," and was a builder and partner in Honus and Lang, an important construction company<ref>{{Cite web |last=David |first=Eric |title=The Master of Darkness |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/augustweb-only/fof_lang.html |access-date=2023-01-06 |website=ChristianityToday.com |date=August 25, 2009 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Fritz Lang |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/mcgilligan-lang.html?scp=7&sq=hans%20lang&st=cse |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref> Pauline Lang was born [[Jewish]] and converted to Catholicism. Fritz Lang was baptized on December 28, 1890, at the [[Schottenstift, Vienna|Schottenkirche]] in Vienna.<ref>Vienna, Schottenpfarre, baptismal register Tom. 1890, fol. 83.</ref> He had an elder brother, Adolf (1884–1961).<ref name="McGilligan/Lang/ONE">{{cite book |last1=McGilligan |first1=Patrick |author1-link=Patrick McGilligan (biographer) |title=Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast |date=1997 |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]] |isbn=0-312-13247-6 |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/mcgilligan-lang.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220420030007/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/mcgilligan-lang.html |archive-date=April 20, 2022 |chapter=CHAPTER ONE |via= archive.[[nytimes.com]]}}</ref>

Lang's father was of [[Moravia]]n descent.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ott |first1=Frederick W. |url=https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5110883W/The_films_of_Fritz_Lang |title=The films of Fritz Lang |date=1979 |publisher=Citadel Press |isbn=0-8065-0435-8 |edition=1st |location=Secaucus, NJ |page=10 |access-date=19 January 2018}}</ref> At one point, he noted that he was "born [a] [[Catholic]] and very puritan".<ref>{{cite book |last=Lang |first=Fritz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xxX-epJIzo0C&pg=PA163 |title=Fritz Lang: Interviews |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-57806-577-6 |page=163|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi }}</ref> Ultimately describing himself as an [[atheist]], Lang believed that religion was important for teaching ethics.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |author=Tom Gunning |title=The films of Fritz Lang: allegories of vision and modernity |publisher=British Film Institute |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-85170-742-6 |page=7 |quote=Lang, however, immediately cautions Prokosh, 'Jerry, don't forget, the gods have not created men, man has created the gods.' This is more than a simple statement of Feuerbach-like humanism or atheism.}}</ref><ref name="McGilligan_p477">{{cite book |last1=McGilligan |first1=Patrick |author1-link=Patrick McGilligan (biographer) |title=Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0312194543 |page=477}}<!--|access-date=April 8, 2013--></ref><ref name=":2">{{cite book |last1=Kermode|first1=Mark |author1-link=Mark Kermode |title=Hatchet Job: Love Movies, Hate Critics |date=2013 |publisher=Pan Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4472-3052-6 |pages=25–26 |quote=The Austrian-born film-maker Fritz Lang once commented that, although he was an atheist, he supported religious education because 'if you do not teach religion, how can you teach ethics?'}}</ref>

After finishing school, Lang briefly attended the [[Technical University of Vienna]], where he studied civil engineering and eventually switched to art. He left Vienna in 1910 to travel throughout Europe and Africa, later Asia and the [[Pacific]] area. In 1913, he studied painting in [[Paris]]. He was arrested by the French authorities as an "enemy alien," but escaped to Vienna, where he was drafted into the Imperial Austrian Army.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-12-01 |title=A man for all seasons: Fritz Lang interviewed in 1967 |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/interviews/man-all-seasons-fritz-lang-interviewed-1967 |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=BFI |language=en}}</ref>

At the outbreak of [[World War I]], Lang returned to Vienna and volunteered for military service in the [[Austria-Hungary|Austrian]] [[Austro-Hungarian Army|Army]], fighting in Russia and [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]]. Lang was wounded four times and lost sight in his right eye,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fritz-Lang |title="Fritz Lang" |last=Barson |first=Michael |date=29 July 2020 |website=britannica.com |access-date=11 August 2020}}</ref> when he then saw a Max Reinhardt show for injured soldiers and played in a Red Cross revue. During his convalescence he began writing plays and simple scenarios with Austrian film director [[Joe May]] devising a two-reel film from a Lang scenario. At the end of the war, Lang began to mingle with the demobilized Berlin artists <ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-12-01 |title=A man for all seasons: Fritz Lang interviewed in 1967 |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/interviews/man-all-seasons-fritz-lang-interviewed-1967 |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=BFI |language=en}}</ref> and was discharged from the army with the rank of lieutenant in 1918. Lang briefly acted in the Viennese theater circuit before being hired as a writer at [[Decla Film]], [[Erich Pommer]]'s Berlin-based production company.

On 13 February 1919, in the Marriage Registry Office in [[Charlottenburg]],<!-- [[:de:Fritz Lang]] --> Berlin, Lang married a theater actress named Elisabeth Rosenthal<!-- [[:fr:Fritz Lang]] -->. Rosenthal died of a single gunshot wound in their bathtub on September 25, 1920, the shot<ref name="slant/mcgilligan-lang">{{cite news |last1=Dillard |first1=Clayton |title=Review: Patrick McGilligan's Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review-patrick-mcgilligans-fritz-lang-the-nature-of-the-beast/ |access-date=27 July 2024 |work=Slant Magazine |date=7 November 2013}}</ref> deemed to have been fired by Lang's World War I [[Browning Arms Company|Browning]] [[revolver]].<ref name="guardian/2001/feb/10/book.review">{{cite news |last1=Connolly |first1=Kate |title=Murder and Metropolis |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/feb/10/books.guardianreview |access-date=27 July 2024 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=10 February 2001}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/feb/10/books.guardianreview|title = Murder and Metropolis|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = February 10, 2001}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.williamahearn.com/lisa.html|title = Lisa |website = williamahearn.com}}</ref><ref name="Brook-Noir">{{cite book |last1=Brook |first1=Vincent |title=Driven to Darkness: Jewish Emigre Directors and the Rise of Film Noir |date=18 September 2009 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-4833-3 |url= |language=en |chapter=4. The Father of Film Noir: Fritz Lang |pages=58–78 |doi=10.36019/9780813548333-005 }}</ref> Lang and his future wife Harbou claimed that Rosenthal had shot herself, and Lang and Harbou were charged with failure to render aid. The charge was soon dropped.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lisa |url=http://www.williamahearn.com/lisa.html |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=www.williamahearn.com}}</ref>