Carl Laemmle emigrated from Laupheim in Upper Swabia to the United States in 1884 and, in 1912, after his battle against Thomas A. Edison’s film monopoly, founded the Universal Film Manufacturing Company there. Under his leadership, early genre-defining silent films were produced, and he was also one of the first to transform actors into stars. Starting in 1928, his son Carl Laemmle Jr. developed Universal into the birthplace of the classic horror film. The lecture tells the story of this German-American family and, at the same time, that of one of Hollywood’s first major film studios.