Pabst (August 25, 1885) worked as a set designer and actor in theatre before he started to work in film as assistant director to the director Carl Froelich. He made his directing debut with the film The Treasure (Der Schatz, 1923), and achieved success with the film The Joyless Street (Die Freudlose Gasse, 1925), starring Greta Garbo. Afterwards he made Secrets of a Soul (Geheimnisse einer Seele, 1926), Pandora's Box (Die Büchse der Pandora, 1928), his most esteemed film partly because it had been censored, Diary of a Lost Girl (Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen, 1929), The White Hell of Pitz Palu (Die Weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü, 1929) and his first sound film Comrades of 1918 (Westfront 1918, 1930). His only film made in Hollywood, A Modern Hero (1934), was not very successful. Afterwards, he returned to Germany and continued to direct films such as The Comedians (Komödianten, 1941), Paracelsus (1943), The Trial (Der Prozeß, 1948), Hitler: The Last Ten Days (Der Letzte Akt, 1955), It Happened on July 20th (Es geschah am 20. Juli, 1955) and his last film, the only one he made in color, Through the Forests and Through the Trees (Durch die Wälder, durch die Auen, 1956).