Walter Ruttmann (1897-1941) was born in Frankfurt am Main on December 28, 1897. He studied architecture and then painting, later turning to sound experiments and film. Ruttmann is considered among the most important German practitioners of early abstract experimental film. Among his most well known works are the silent film Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis and Wochenende (Weekend) a pioneering work from the early days of radio, commissioned in 1928 by Berlin Radio Hour and broadcast June 13, 1930. During the late 1930s Ruttmann delved deeper into documentary filmmaking, which likely led to his work on various propaganda films. During the Nazi period he worked as an assistant to director Leni Riefenstahl on Triumph of the Will (1935). Having become injured injury while filming a documentary about the fighting on the Russian front, Ruttmann died in Berlin in 1941 during surgery.