Albin Grau was an artist, architect and occultist, and the producer and production designer for F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu. He was largely responsible for the look and spirit of the film, including the sets, costumes, storyboards and promotional materials.

A lifelong student of the occult and member of Fraternitas Saturni, Grau was able to imbue Nosferatu with hermetic

Hermeticism

Hermeticism or the Western Hermetic Tradition is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the pseudepigraphical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus...

 and mystical undertones. One example in particular was the cryptic contract that Count Orlok

Count Orlok

Count Orlok is a fictional character portrayed by Max Schreck in the silent movie Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens...

 and Knock exchanged, which was filled in Enochian

Enochian

Enochian is a name often applied to an occult or angelic language recorded in the private journals of John Dee and his seer Edward Kelley in the late 16th century. The men claimed that it was revealed to them by angels...

, hermetic and alchemical

Alchemy

Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...

 symbols. Grau was also a strong influence on Orlok's verminous and emaciated look. Grau had originally gotten the idea of shooting a vampire film while serving in the German Army during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, when a Serbian farmer told him that his father was a vampire and one of the Undead

Undead

Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...

.

Before Grau and Murnau collaborated on Nosferatu, Grau was planning to create several movies devoted to the occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

 and supernatural through his studio, Prana Film

Prana Film

Prana Film was a short-lived silent-era German film studio. Its intent was to produce occult and supernatural themed films. Its only film, 1922's Nosferatu, was its end: it declared bankruptcy in order to dodge copyright infringement suits from Bram Stoker's widow. The company is named for the...

. Since Nosferatu was a loose and unauthorized translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula Prana had to declare bankruptcy in order to evade infringement lawsuits. This made Nosferatu its one and only release.

After Fraternitas Saturni was prohibited in 1936 by the Nazi regime, Albin Grau was threatened by persecution but managed to emigrate to Switzerland.

After the war, he returned to Germany and lived in Bayrischzell, Upper Bavaria, until his death in 1971.

In popular culture

Albin Grau was one of the main characters in the fictionalized movie account of the filming of Nosferatu, titled Shadow of the Vampire

Shadow of the Vampire

Shadow of the Vampire is a 2000 horror film directed by E. Elias Merhige and written by Steven Katz, and starring John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, and Udo Kier. The film is a fictionalized account of the making of the classic vampire film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, directed by F. W....

(2000), directed by American filmmaker E. Elias Merhige

E. Elias Merhige

Edmund Elias Merhige, known as E. Elias Merhige, is an American film director born in Brooklyn.Merhige is best known to mainstream audiences for the 2000 film Shadow of the Vampire, and to underground audiences for the cult-classic 1991 film Begotten.As he says in his audio commentary to the...

. He was played by Udo Kier

Udo Kier

Udo Kier is a German actor, known primarily for his work in horror and exploitation movies.-Early life:...

.