Max and Emil Skladanowsky

Max Skladanowsky (1863 to 1939) was a German inventor and filmmaker who, with his brother Emil, built the Bioscop, an early motion picture projector that used two interlocked film strips to reduce visible flicker. On 1 November 1895 the brothers staged a projected moving picture show before a paying audience at the Wintergarten theater in Berlin, an event that predates the Lumiere brothers' Paris screening of 28 December 1895 usually credited as cinema's public debut. Max handled the technical design of the apparatus while Emil managed promotion and exhibition of the shows. Between 1895 and roughly 1905 the brothers directed around 25 to 30 short films, but the Lumiere Cinematographe soon proved technically superior and easier to operate, and the Skladanowsky brothers were eclipsed commercially even as their early priority claim remained historically significant.