Janowitz was an officer in World War I, but returned from it as a pacifist.

Shortly after the war ended, he met the similarly minded Carl Mayer in Berlin, who suggested he work as an author.

Supposedly, the film was at first offered to director Fritz Lang, in the early part of his career, who suggested the now-famous framing story of the madman remembering his past, who then recounts the tale of a girl's mysterious murder, first read about by Janowitz in a newspaper account.

Janowitz and Mayer protested the change, but it was made anyway over their objections, [citation needed] and Lang left the project to direct another film.

As early as 1922, he ended his movie career and became active in the oil business.