Lion Feuchtwanger

Leon Feuchtwanger was a German writer, winner of the National Prize of the GDR (1953). He was born July 7, 1884 in Munich into the Jewish family of the manufacturer Sigmund (Aron Meer) Feuchtwanger (1854-1916), who inherited the margarine industry from his father Elkan Feuchtwanger (1823-1902), a native of Fürth, son of Seligmann Feuchtwanger and Feigele (Fanny) Wasserman. His mother was Johanna Bodenheimer (1864-1926). His parents married in 1883 and Lyon was the eldest of nine children. As a child he showed an inclination toward the study of languages: Hebrew and Aramaic. In 1894, he studied Latin at the Wilhelm Gymnasium. He received a solid education at the university of his hometown of Munich (here he studied literature and philosophy), and then Berlin, where he studied Germanic philology, philosophy, and Sanskrit. Engaged in journalism and theater, he showed an early interest in antiquity. Under the influence of family tradition he became interested in Jewish history, which defined the subject matter of a number of his works. In 1903-1907 years rejects material help from parents and earns private lessons, creates a literary society "Thebes", where some writers come. During this period he writes his first literary attempts of the pen. Forced to starve. But stubbornly seeks himself in literature, fascinated by Zola, Tolstoy and Turgenev. In his last year at Berlin University, he defends his dissertation on the work "Bacharach Rabbi" by H. Heine. By April 1908 he publishes his first literary journal, Spiegel, about theater and music. On its fifteenth issue, the publication ceases publication as it becomes part of the larger weekly Shaubühne[6]. By November of the same year he was an employee of this periodical, writing reviews of theatrical productions and trying his hand at drama. In 1908 he began to publish a literary magazine "Mirror", which he was soon forced to close due to financial problems. In 1912-1914 he traveled. During the First World War he served in the German army and was demobilized for health reasons. In 1918 Feuchtwanger discovered the talent of the young Bertolt Brecht, with whom he was linked by a long-standing friendship. At the time of Hitler's rise to power, Feuchtwanger was abroad. His friends persuaded him to delay his return to Germany. Feuchtwanger was among those whose books were to be burned, and on August 25, 1933 he was deprived of German citizenship. His property was confiscated.

In 1940, during the German occupation of France, the writer was interned in the French concentration camp at Le Mill. His memories of his camp life, full of all kinds of humiliation and hardship, were portrayed by him in his book "The Devil in France". The campers, among whom were many opponents of Hitler's regime, were in danger of falling into the hands of the Nazis, and it was then decided to transfer the internees to another camp, in Nîmes. Having escaped from there, and having with great difficulty obtained the necessary documents, Feuchtwanger and his wife made their way to the United States with the help of the American priest Whitestill Sharp and his wife Martha. From November 1943 he lived at Villa Aurora in California, where he amassed a library of 20,000 volumes thanks to proceeds from films based on his works. During World War II, Feuchtwanger produced his best works exposing Nazism and its ideology. For his outstanding services as an artist and defender of the ideas of peace and progress, Leon Feuchtwanger was awarded the State Prize of the GDR in art and literature in 1953. Feuchtwanger died in Los Angeles on December 21, 1958, of stomach cancer. The Aurora Villa, where the writer spent his last years, is now a creative residence for German writers, artists and composers.