Siegfried Kracauer (Frankfurt, 1889-New York, 1969). He worked as an architect between 1915 and 1918, when he left the profession to devote himself to writing. His first works were related to journalism (1922-1933), as head of the cultural pages of the Frankfurter Zeitung. After the Reichstag fire in February 1933 Kracauer and his wife Lili Ehrenreich left Germany towards Paris. In 1941 they moved to the United States. There Kracauer was director of applied research in social sciences from the University of Columbia. His works include Ornament der Masse (mass ornament, 1927) and From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film (1947).