Richard Oswald was an Austrian director, producer, actor and screenwriter. He directed more than 100 feature films from 1914 to 1951. Among them the classics "Nachtgestalten" (1920), "Unheimliche Geschichten" (1919/1932), "Die Prostitution 1-2" (1919) and "Alraune" (1930).

Being Jewish, Oswald was forced to flee Nazi Germany, first for occupied France and later emigrating to the United States.