filmandtvhistory:

March 4, 1922 - Nosferatu premieres in Germany at the Berlin Zoological Garden.

The silent horror film was directed by F.W. Mumau and Henrik Galeen wrote the screenplay. It starred Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim and  Greta Schröder.

The film was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula due to it not being public domain in Germany and wouldn’t be considered as such until 1962 (50 years after Stoker’s death) which meant that copyright approval was still required. When Stoker’s widow, Florence, found out about the film, she sued saying that the film had knowingly stolen from her husband’s novel. The courts agreed with her and ruled that all copies of the film were to be destroyed. However, a print managed to survive and made its way to the US and since Stoker’s novel was considered public domain there, more copies of the film were made and as they say, the rest is history…