Early Life
Max Schreck was born in Berlin-Friedenau, on 6 September 1879. Six years later his father bought a house in the independent rural community of Friedenau, then part of the district of Teltow.
His father saw Schreck's ever-growing enthusiasm for theater and did not approve. His mother provided the boy with money, which he used to secretly take acting lessons.
Only after the death of his father did he attend drama school. After graduating, he travelled across the country with Demetrius Schrutz for a short time.
Engagements in Mulhouse, Meseritz, Speyer, Rudolstadt, Erfurt, Weissenfels, and the first extended stay at the Gera Theater. Greater engagement will follow, especially in Frankfurt am Main. From there he went to Berlin to Reinhardt and the Munich Chamber Games to Otto Falkenberg. From then on he began to work in films.
Schreck received his training at the Berliner Staatstheater (the State Theatre of Berlin) which he completed in 1902. He made his stage début in Meseritz and Speyer, and then toured Germany for two years appearing at theatres in Zittau, Erfurt, Bremen, Lucerne, Gera, and Frankfurt am Main. Schreck then joined Max Reinhardt's company of performers in Berlin. Many of Reinhardt's troupe made a significant contribution to cinema.
He was in the German military in World War I.
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