Troller, Georg Stefan, 1921-

Georg Stefan Troller (born December 10, 1921) is an Austrian-born French director and screenwriter. In 1938, Troller fled Austria from the Nazis, first to Czechoslovakia and from there on to France, where he was interned as an enemy alien. In 1941, he obtained a visa for the USA in Marseille. His parents were able to escape via Portugal. In the USA, he was drafted into military service in 1943 and participated in the liberation and documentation of the Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945, as well as the capture of Munich on May 1. He was stationed in Europe until 1946 and worked for the Rot-Weiß-Rot radio station operated by the US forces. Back in the USA, Troller studied English at the University of California and theater at Columbia University. In 1949, a Fulbright scholarship for the Sorbonne brought Troller to Paris, where he became a correspondent for RIAS. Troller rose to fame with his program Pariser Journal, which aired from 1962 to 1971 on ARD. In 1971, he launched his series of unconventional interviews Personenbeschreibung for ZDF. His screenplays, directed by Axel Corti, have all become cult films.