What is the original German title of Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s 1929 film Pandora’s Box?

The original German title of Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s 1929 film Pandora’s Box is Die Büchse der Pandora.

The German title translates directly as “Pandora’s Box.” The film was produced in Germany and adapted from Frank Wedekind’s plays Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box, whose German titles are Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora.

The title links Wedekind’s Lulu to the older Pandora tradition, but the plot is not the narrative of Hesiod’s myth. Lulu is a modern stage and film character whose relationships expose sexual double standards, class tensions, and violence.

English-language references generally use Pandora’s Box, which can obscure the film’s German identity. The title is also sometimes written with German quotation marks or translated in catalogues, but Die Büchse der Pandora is the standard original title.