Franz Werfel

Born in Prague to a merchant family, Franz Werfel was brought up in a Catholic environment, receiving his education in a Piarist school. Although Werfel never converted from Judaism, he remained interested in other religious traditions throughout his life—an interest that found expression in his career as a writer. A friend of Franz Kafka, Max Brod, and other figures in the Czech literary sphere, Werfel published his first collection of poetry, titled Der Weltfreund, in 1911. Werfel was deployed to the Russian front during his service in the Austro-Hungarian military during World War I. Due to his experiences in the war, Werfel became a pacifist, and in 1916, his antiwar adaptation of Euripides’ The Trojan Women debuted in Berlin. Following his debut as a playwright, Werfel composed a number of successful dramas, although he remains best known for his novels. The connection and tension between Judaism and Catholicism serve as a central theme for much of Werfel’s oeuvre, while the ethos of his work rests on a broad, emotional humanism. Werfel married Alma Mahler the daughter of composer Gustav Mahler, in 1929, and while living in Vienna in 1938, the two fled following the Anschluss, moving to the United States via France. He died in Los Angeles.