Lion Feuchtwanger,[was] the son of a Jewish factory owner.... After earning his Ph.D. in German Philology and History from Munich University , he established the cultural magazine “Der Spiegel” (The Mirror) [not the current magazine of that name] in 1908. In addition, Feuchtwanger worked as a theatre critic for the “Schaubühne", a weekly published by Siegfried Jacobsohn and moved in Munich Bohème circles. During this time, he published his first plays and novellas.
He was a close friend of Bertold Brecht's and his novels began appearing before the Weimar cultural era. According to the source of our information:
In 1919, Feuchtwanger met Bertolt Brecht in Munich, who would become a close collaborator. In 1923, Feuchtwanger published Die häßliche Herzogin Margarete Maultasch (The Ugly Duchess), a historical novel about the Countess of Tyrol, who unsuccessfully attempted to overcome the stigma of her ugliness and outsider status. Feuchtwanger's first international success as a novelist came two years later, when he published Jud Süß (Jew Süss/ Power), a dramatic account of the life of Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, financial advisor to the Duke of Wuerttemberg, who was sentenced to death and executed in a particulary cruel fashion in 1738. A distorted version of this novel was made into a Nazi propaganda movie during the Third Reich.
Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger moved to Berlin in 1925. In 1930, Feuchtwanger published Erfolg. Drei Jahre Geschichte einer Provinz (Success. History of a Province), his first contemporary novel outlining the history of Bavaria from 1921 to 1924 with a special emphasis on Hitler’s 1923 attempt to overthrow the Weimar government.
Even after the Nazi takeover, and he was apparently safe in the south of France, one reads there was an income from translations of his books. During the 1930's he expressed support for Stalin, as did so many western intellectuals who felt faced with two choices-- just TWO-- fascism or communism. This is a good example of the power of binary thought. Feuchtwanger was typical of western intellectuals in this period.
During this time, he wrote the novel Exil (Exile), a satirical reckoning with German intellectuals who chose to stay in Germany during the Third Reich....
During World War II, Feuchtwanger was interned at the camp Les Milles close to Aix-en-Provence, but managed to escape with the help of his wife and number of American diplomats.
They lived in hiding in Marseille, until they were able to reach Portugal by way of Spain on foot. It was there that they boarded a ship headed for the United States. They moved to Los Angeles and bought Villa Aurora, which they turned into a meeting place of artists and intellectuals in 1943.
Lion Feuchtwanger was one of the few German writers who were able to cultivate an audience in exile. His novels Die Brüder Lautensack (The Lautensack Brothers, 1944), Die Jüdin von Toledo (The Jewess of Toledo, 1955), and most notably, Goya oder Der arge Weg der Erkenntnis (This is the Hour. A Novel about Goya, 1951) became bestsellers in the United States. Toward the end of his life, he revisited Jewish topics and became a proponent of the creation of a Jewish state as a place of shelter from persecution.
This photo of the writer was taken by Florence Homolka. I don't know if was taken before he settled in the US or not but I suspect so.
Raquel, the Jewess of Toledo, (1956)
Jephta and His Daughter, (1958)
Josephus and the Emperor, (1942)
Like Thomas Mann he needed the distance that historical events provide to get a sense he was being objective. Unlike Mann Lion Feuchtwanger must have relied on money from his family. Unlike Brecht, by the time the war was over, he had no illusions about living in a workers paradise. Feuchtwanger wanted American citizenship. He died not knowing it had been granted him.
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