Biographie

Son of Adolf and Cäcilia Franziska Meister. The parents were from the working class.

Austrian director, who began as a production manager and assistant to Alexander Korda in 1919. He was under contract to Ufa Studios from 1930, turning out both popular entertainments and more off-beat films (F.P.1 antwortet nicht (1932), Gold (1934)). After the war, he set up the Neue Wiener Filmproduktionsgesellschaft, featuring Austrian stars in productions like Der Engel mit der Posaune (1948).

Karl Hartl's flight was stopped by the outbreak of the war. In the wartime he only realised the movies "Operette" (1940) and "Wen die Götter lieben" (1942), afterwards he could not continue his work till the end of war.

As a production manager, he in the 1920s accompanied Korda to Berlin, until in 1926 he returned to Vienna to work for his former class-mate director Gustav Ucicky.

He was also a member of the Advisory Council (Präsidialrat) of the president of the Reichsfilmkammer.