Max Nivelli was born as Menachem (Mendel) Lewin in Kuźnica,[1] a town on the eastern border of Poland, then part of the Russian Empire.

[1] As a young man he emigrated to Berlin and between the years 1903-1911 he became the owner and partner in several companies which produced fruit preserves, candy and chocolates.

Apart from his work with Delmont, he also had a productive collaboration with Carl Boese with whom he made four films, among them was Nocturne of Love (German: Nocturno der Liebe) which was based on the life of the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin.

[12] He also managed the cinema house "Lichtspiel Palmenhaus Kino" in Berlin[13] and served on the board of directors of "Paw Film", a Polish production and distribution company located in Warsaw.

[14] Towards the end of that period, in 1924, Nivelli gradually resumed his role as film producer by making four short documentaries, depicting primarily state memorial ceremonies and celebrations.

[24] The film portrays a violent attack against Jews ("Pogrom") in a village in the Russian Empire, when rumors of a ritual murder spread following the disappearance of a little girl.

When the girl is finally found safe and sound, the conspiracy to incriminate the Jews with a blood libel is exposed, but it comes too late for the leader's daughter, who is fatally wounded in one of the attacks.

[30] Max Nivelli was portrayed as the driving force of this project, by which "he succeeded in spreading his vision for enlightenment and the need to fight prejudice",[31] and in that "he can be considered as one of the monumental film producers of his time".

The film makers decided to take the story to a more contemporary context and produced what was to become the first fictional account of the events of January 1919 in Berlin, the so-called “Spartacist Uprising”.

[34] In the film, a group of workers starts a violent rebellion in an attempt to destroy the existing order, actions which almost lead to civil war.

[37] Some even praised the courage demonstrated by the makers of the film, who dared to examine such a sensitive issue while memories of recent events were still fresh in the public's mind.

[38] On the other hand, newspapers which represented socialist views, claimed that the workers were negatively portrayed and that the film's goal was to disseminate fear among the public.