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Diary of a Lost Woman

1918 film by Richard Oswald

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ15669273 ↗
Source-derived summary

Diary of a Lost Woman (German: Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen) is a 1918 German silent drama film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Erna Morena, Reinhold Schünzel, and Werner Krauss. The rising star Conrad Veidt also appeared. It is now considered a lost film. It was remade at the end of the silent era as Diary of a Lost Girl by Georg Wilhelm Pabst.

Due to the film's over theme of prostitution it had major censorship issues which delayed its release for several months and led to a number of cuts.

The film's sets were designed by the art director August Rinaldi.

Cast

Erna Morena as Thymian

Reinhold Schünzel as Graf Kasimir Osdorff

Werner Krauss as Meinert

Paul Rehkopf as Geoteball

Conrad Veidt as Dr. Julius

Max Laurence as Der alte Graf

Ilse Wejrmann as Elisabeth Woyens

Marga Köhler as Lene Peters

Marie von Buelow as Frau Kindermann

Clementine Plessner as Tante Frieda

References

Bibliography

Kreimeier, Klaus. The Ufa Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918-1945. University of California Press, 1999.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Diary of a Lost Woman” as 1918 film by Richard Oswald. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Diary, Lost and Woman.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1918, 1945, 1999—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Diary, Lost and Woman providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Diary of a Lost Woman”, the useful work is to connect “1918 film by Richard Oswald” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15669273. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1945 and 1999.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Diary of a Lost Woman”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Diary of a Lost Woman primary sources, Diary of a Lost Woman archive and Diary research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Diary of a Lost Woman”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Diary of a Lost Woman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.