Werfel, Franz |
| PLAYWRIGHT, NOVELIST (AUSTRIA) |
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BORN 10 Sep 1890, Praha - DIED 26 Aug 1945, Beverly Hills, California GRAVE LOCATION Wien: Zentralfriedhof, Simmeringer Hauptstraße 234, Simmering (Gruppe 32 C, Nummer 39) |
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Franz Werfel came from a wealthy family of Jewish merchants.
He studied in Praque, Leipzig and Hamburg. According to the
wishes of his father he worked for a trading company from 1912
until 1914. During the First World War he served in the Austrian
army. After he was transferred to the war press agency in Vienna
he was considered so pacifistic that he was even charged with
treason. In Vienna he met Alma Mahler, who left Walter Gropius to live with him. They married in 1929. By then he had made himself a name as an author, but "Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh" (1933) made him famous. In 1933 his membership of the Preußischen Akademie der Dichtung was cancelled by the nazi's. In 1938 he emigrated to France, where he suffered a heart attack. In 1940 a spectular flight to the United States followed. He suffered a heart attack but continued smoking. After more heart attacks he died in 1945 in Beverly Hills. He was buried at the Rosendale Cemetery, but later his remains were transferred to the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna. Werfel's early work was expressionistic. In later years he turned to historism and psychological realism. Family Wife: Mahler, Alma Related persons knew Kafka, Franz Sources Budig, Robert S. et al, Ehrengräber am Wiener Zentralfriedhof, Compress Verlag Wien, Wien Wikipedia (English) |
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