 In Germany and Austria, he worked as stage designer in theater productions in Berlin and Vienna, working among others with Max Reinhardt.In 1921/1922, he designed stage decorations for the Jasha Jushny's "Der Blaue Vogel (Blue Bird)", a legendary Russian émigré cabaret at Goltzstrasse in Berlin.In 1923, he designed his first cinema décor for "Raskolnikow", directed by Robert Wiene, film based upon Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment".