Charles Decroix
Charles Decroix was a French director, producer and screenwriter whose rise happened in Germany before World War I. Born to an Alsatian shoemaker, he joined the new art of cinema in 1899 and started by writing scripts.
In 1907 Pathé hired him, and he directed several films, including Children’s Reformatory; a Balzac adaptation Les paysans; and Une conquête, a short grotesque with Max Linder.
In spring 1910 he moved to Berlin and spent four years working for German companies. He became one of the leading filmmakers in early German cinema, creating both dramas and comedies that earned critical praise. In 1912 he briefly worked in Italy for Milano Films. In 1913 he returned to Berlin and founded Films Charles Decroix. He helped discover silent stars Bernd Aldor and Fern Andra and mentored director Carl Wilhelm. He also worked for Dekage, Monopol-Film and Continental-Kunstfilm.
When World War I began in August 1914, the French citizen Decroix fled Berlin. He was in the middle of filming Fern Andra’s melodrama Moon Fisherman, which remained unfinished. He went to Switzerland, where he was interned in Frutigen until 1918. In 1917 he managed to direct several films around Zürich.
After the war he returned to France. In 1919, in Alsace, he tried to continue his film career with Le film alsacien. But lingering hostility in Germany toward his prewar work hindered his projects. He returned to Berlin for two film projects with Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers, making two comedies starring Leo Peukert and Sabine Impekoven, after which he left cinema. Nothing more is known about his life.
Timeline: 1907–1910 in France; 1910–1914 and 1921–1922 in Germany; 1917 in Switzerland.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 10:33 (CET).