(b Radeburg, nr Dresden, 10 Jan 1858; d Berlin, 9 Aug 1929). German draughtsman, printmaker, photographer and film maker. He attended evening classes at the Hochschule f?r Bildende K?nste, Berlin, while serving a lithography apprenticeship (1872-5). He subsequently worked for an art printing company, where he learned the techniques of etching and aquatint. His first drawings were exhibited at the Berlin Secession in 1901, where he exhibited regularly thereafter. His work also appeared in Jugend: Illustrierte Wochenschrift f?r Kunst und Leben and Lustige Bl?tter. Zille's sympathetic depictions of impoverished workers, children and prostitutes in Berlin are in a humourous vein but with serious undertones, and carry captions in Berlin slang; his photographs of Berlin street scenes also provide rare documents of everyday life. In 1926 he made the film Die da Unten.

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