Lost 'Faust Bible' resurfaces for Murnau centenary
MUBI, working with La Cinémathèque française, will release The Faust Bible: The Making of F.W. Murnau's Masterpiece internationally on October 17, 2026, to mark 100 years since F.W. Murnau's Faust (1926), according to Deadline. The book is being published in full for the first time.
The volume recreates a visual diary of about 400 photographs and original illustrations. Together they follow the making of Faust almost step by step, from set construction and effects work to scenes being staged.
That diary was compiled by three members of the film's crew: Robert Herlth, Carl Hoffmann and Walter Röhrig. On completion of filming, they presented it to Murnau inside a prop Bible, a Bible made to appear on screen, as a farewell memento before he left Germany for Hollywood.
It was long believed lost. The collection was thought to have been destroyed during the Second World War. It had survived and stayed hidden for decades.
La Cinémathèque française acquired it in 2017, then rediscovered and restored it. That work forms the basis of the new edition.
The English edition is a large hardcover, measuring 13 x 10 inches (33 x 25.6 cm), with 362 pages and ISBN 979-8-9916580-3-4, according to MUBI Editions. Orders are listed as beginning shipping in October 2026. La Cinémathèque française lists the French volume, titled La Bible de Faust : la création du chef-d'œuvre de Murnau, as a 354-page book, according to La Cinémathèque française, which also lists a related event, La « Bible » du Faust de Murnau, on October 17, 2026.
The anniversary also returns the film to screens. Faust, a 1926 German production from UFA, the large German studio of the silent era, streams globally on MUBI from October 14. Live-scored centenary screenings, where musicians perform alongside the silent film, are scheduled in Paris on October 17, Munich on October 25 and Los Angeles on November 1.
The publishing programme sits with MUBI's books arm, where Daniel Kasman is vice-president of publishing.
What makes this stand out is the chain of survival. A crew gift became a missing object. A missing object became an archive. For fans, this means a chance to see how a silent-era production was built, in the pictures its own makers kept.
