Robert Neppach

Robert Neppach (2 March 1890 – 18 August 1939) was an Austrian architect, film producer and art director. Neppach worked from 1919 in the German film industry. He oversaw the art direction of over 80 films during his career, including F.W. Murnau's Desire (1921) and Richard Oswald's Lucrezia Borgia (1922). Neppach was comparatively unusual among set designers during the era in having university training. In 1932, he switched to concentrate on film production. In May 1933, his first wife Nelly, a successful tennis player, took her life because of the discrimination and prosecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. He married Grete Walter, daughter of the composer Bruno Walter in Autumn 1933. With his Jewish wife, life grew increasingly difficult for him under the Nazis. He began to work as an architect again, and the couple emigrated to Switzerland. They lived apart and Neppach's wife, who had an affair with Ezio Pinza filed for divorce. When they met to discuss the matter Neppach first shot his wife and then himself. ()