Who wrote the two Lulu plays adapted into the film Pandora’s Box?

Frank Wedekind wrote the two Lulu plays adapted into the film Pandora’s Box. The first is Earth Spirit, or Erdgeist, and the second is Pandora’s Box, or Die Büchse der Pandora.

Wedekind was a German playwright whose work often challenged conventional morality and theatrical style. His Lulu cycle centers on a sexually independent woman whose relationships expose the hypocrisy and violence of the society around her.

G. W. Pabst’s 1929 film combines material from both plays rather than reproducing either one word for word. The movie’s title comes from the second play, which in turn uses Pandora’s name as an evocative cultural symbol.

Wedekind’s Lulu is therefore best understood as a modern literary creation inspired by the Pandora tradition, not as a literal version of the ancient Greek myth. The adaptation also helped carry his work into international film history, particularly through Louise Brooks’s performance.