All major German cinematographers of the silent era were masters of trick technology. Internationally the best known was Karl Freund, but the artistry of Carl Hoffmann, whom Freund considered the greatest of all cinematographers, Fritz Arno Wagner, and Gunther Rittau equalled Freund’s. Even though German cameramen, particularly in the early 1920s, often complained about being undervalued, by international standards they were highly respected. Ubiquitous techno-romantic views elevated the cinematographer's prestige. They rendered conceivable the ostensibly oxymoronic notion of technician as artist. Because medium-specific creativity, i.e., the imaginative use of film technology to shape cinematic images, was deemed a prerequisite for film art, film technicians became regarded as co-creators of the filmic artwork early on in Germany. The ability to create striking trick effects was therefore not merely a hallmark of cinematographers’ professional merit, but fundamental to their status as artists.

Tricks, as Guido Seeber defined them in his 1927 book-length study on the subject, are “skilful cinematographic devices” [Kunstgriffe aufnahmetechnischer Art], specifically of the “photographic, optical, physical, and chemical” kind. Many of the devices that Seeber examines would still be considered special effects today. They include techniques that manipulate the photographic image itself, like mattes, miniatures, rear projection, and multiple exposure composites as well as methods that manipulate the illusion of movement like stop, reverse, slow, and fast motion. At the same time, however, several of the techniques covered in Seeber's book, such as extreme camera angles, capturing certain photographically challenging objects like the moon, or the use of particular film stock, were later no longer regarded as “tricks”.