Werfel, Franz

Werfel, Franz

▪ German writer
born Sept. 10, 1890, Prague [now in Czech Republic]
died Aug. 26, 1945, Hollywood, Calif., U.S.

      German-language writer who attained prominence as an Expressionist (Expressionism) poet, playwright, and novelist and whose works espoused human brotherhood, heroism, and religious faith.

      The son of a glove manufacturer, Werfel left home to work in a Hamburg shipping house. Shortly afterward he published two books of lyric poems, Der Weltfreund (1911; “The World's Friend”) and Wir sind (1913; “We Are”). After fighting on the Italian and Galician fronts in World War I, he became antimilitary, recited pacifistic poems in cafés, and was arrested. His playwriting career began in 1916 with an adaptation of Euripides' Trojan Women, which had a successful run in Berlin. He turned to fiction in 1924 with Verdi, Roman der Oper (Verdi, A Novel of the Opera). In 1929 he married Alma Mahler (Mahler, Alma). International fame came with Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh (1933; The Forty Days of Musa Dagh), an epic novel in which Armenian villagers resist Turkish forces until rescued by the French.

      When the Nazis incorporated Austria in 1938, Werfel, a Jew, settled in an old mill in southern France. With the fall of France in 1940 (reflected in his play Jakobowsky und der Oberst, written in 1944 and successfully produced in New York City that year as Jakobowsky and the Colonel), he fled to the United States. In the course of his journey, he found solace in the pilgrimage town of Lourdes, France, where St. Bernadette (Bernadette of Lourdes, Saint) had had visions of the Virgin. He vowed to write about the saint if he ever reached America and kept the vow with Das Lied von Bernadette (1941; The Song of Bernadette). His novel was the basis for a popular film (1943) that won four Academy Awards.

Additional Reading
Lothar Huber (ed.), Franz Werfel: An Austrian Writer Reassessed (1989); Peter Stephan Jungk, Franz Werfel: A Life in Prague, Vienna, and Hollywood (1990; originally published in German, 1987); Jennifer E. Michaels, Franz Werfel and the Critics (1994).

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • WERFEL, FRANZ — (1890–1945), Austrian novelist, playwright, and poet. The son of a prosperous Prague manufacturer, Werfel was a friend of max brod and franz kafka . He rejected the business career his father chose for him, and echoes of their disagreement are… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Werfel, Franz — (1890–1945)    Austrian writer. The son of a Prague merchant, Werfel became a celebrated Viennese playwright, novelist and poet of the Expressionist school. Among his successful plays were the Spiegelmensch trilogy (1920), Juarez und Maximilian… …   Who’s Who in Jewish History after the period of the Old Testament

  • Werfel, Franz — (1890 1945)    Austrian novelist, playwright and poet. He was born in Prague, and served in the Austrian army. From 1940 he lived in the US. Some of his writing deals with Jewish themes …   Dictionary of Jewish Biography

  • Werfel, Franz — ► (1890 1945) Poeta, novelista y dramaturgo austríaco. Perteneció al expresionismo. Autor de La canción de Bernadette (1941) …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Werfel, Franz —    см. Верфель, Франц …   Энциклопедический словарь экспрессионизма

  • Werfel — Werfel, Franz …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Franz Werfel — Franz Werfel, fotografiert von Carl van Vechten Franz Viktor Werfel (* 10. September 1890 in Prag; † 26. August 1945 in Beverly Hills, Kalifornien) war ein österreichisch US amerikanischer Schriftsteller. Er war ein Wortführer des …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Franz Werfel — (September 10, 1890 ndash; August 26, 1945) was an Austrian Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet. Biography Born in Prague (then part of the Austro Hungarian Empire), Werfel was the first of three children of a wealthy manufacturer of gloves… …   Wikipedia

  • Franz Werfel — en 1940 Activités Poète, romancier et dramaturge Naissance …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Franz Werfel — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Franz Werfel Franz Werfel (Praga, 10 de septiembre de 1890 Beverly Hills, 26 de agosto de 1945) fue un novelista, dramaturgo y poeta austro checo que escribió en …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”