Konrad Heiden
Konrad Heiden ( pseudonym: Klaus Bredow, born August 7, 1901 in Munich, † June 18, 1966 in New York City ) was a German journalist and writer.
Life and work
In the period of the Weimar Republic, he was member of the SPD and one of the earliest journalistic observer of the Nazi movement. In the 30s he wrote the first major biography of Adolf Hitler.
As a journalist, he observed since the beginning of the 20s the political scene in Munich and so experienced Hitler's early beginnings from 1921. The ideology of the Nazis he brought to the formula: " swash without noise, march without a goal ."
Heiden's 1936 published in the Zurich exile Adolf Hitler. The life of a dictator - The age of irresponsibility is called the historian John Lukacs, the " first substantial study of Hitler." He certifies Gentiles to have Hitler investigated over many years with intense interest: " His portrayal of Hitler's life and career was full of details and often remarkably accurate. " Among the many Hitler biographies of today there is hardly one that is not on the authentic based descriptions of this work, although the author himself is largely forgotten. There is no biography of Konrad Heiden.
Youth, Education and Career
Konrad Heiden was born in 1901 in Munich. His father was a member of a professional functionary of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, for which he worked as a laborer and secretary of a city councilor in Frankfurt am Main. The mother came from a Jewish family. Spent his youth Gentiles in Frankfurt am Main. From 1908 to 1910 Heiden attended the middle school, then from 1911 to 1919 the school.
In 1920 he went to Munich, where he studied law and economics. During his studies, graduating in 1923, he was in 1922 elected Chairman of the Republican Union of Students. After completing his studies Heiden became a professional journalist. From 1923 to 1930, he reported as a correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung of Munich. In parallel, he also wrote for the newspaper Vossische. 1930 organized Gentiles in Berlin a press agency that grappled with the Nazi propaganda. In the years 1930 to 1932, he belonged to the editors of the Frankfurter Zeitung in Berlin before he earned his livelihood since 1932 as a freelance journalist and writer. In the same year published his first book Gentiles history of National Socialism - The career of an idea. The book, which was released by Random House, had a circulation of 5000 copies.
Period of National Socialism, exile and literary activity
1933 Heiden went into exile and stayed illegally in the Saarland. From June to December 1933 he was in Zurich, until January 1935 in Saarbrücken. Under the pseudonym Klaus Bredow, he wrote two pamphlets in disguise to influence the referendum on the Saarland: Hitler rages - The blood tragedy of the 30th June 1934, and the Nazis are socialists? Heiden was co-editor of the journal German freedom in Saarbrücken. After the Saar plebiscite on January 13, 1935 heathens fled to France.
1933-1936 Konrad Heiden was in addition to about 20 emigrants and non-German helpers - such as Albert Einstein, Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Romain Rolland and Wickham Steed - the "friend of Carl von Ossietzky ". They set up appeals to the Nazi regime, in which they demanded the dismissal Ossietzkys from the concentration camp and passed the Norwegian Nobel Committee the proposal to give Ossietzky the Nobel Peace Prize. As part of this campaign, a small pamphlet in which celebrities wrote supportive contributions arose. Konrad Heiden steered the Post Peace Prize - in character price.
In 1934 he published his second book, Birth of the Third Reich, published by Oprecht in Zurich. 1936-1937 appeared in Europe -Verlag in Zurich a two-volume Hitler biography, along with English, American and French editions ( Volume One: Adolf Hitler - The Life of a Dictator - The age of irresponsibility, distributed in 31,000 copies, the second volume: Adolf Hitler - Biography - A man against Europe, distributed in 15,500 copies ). From January 1935 to May 1940 remained pagans in Paris. He was chief editor of the major exile magazine The New Day - book, edited by Leopold Schwarzschild. Was published in 1937 his book European fate in Querido Verlag in Amsterdam.
In January 1937 Konrad Heiden was expatriated from Germany; his property was confiscated. Appeared in 1939 in Starling Press, New York, his book The new Inquisition; published simultaneously in Paris under the title Les Vepres Hitleriensis. Heiden described in the pogroms of November 1938 This book was published in 2013 under the title A Night in November 1938. A contemporary report in German. A German -language typescript with the working title Night Eid is located in the Central Library Zurich.
At the outbreak of World War II Gentiles was interned in France. When the German Wehrmacht, the French army drove back in the early summer of 1940 very quickly, he was released, and he managed to flee to the United States. He was among the more than 2,200 people, Varian Fry made possible the escape of Lisbon. With the help of the International Rescue Committee, he received an incorrect Czechoslovak passport in the name David Silbermann. In Lisbon, he received an American visa and traveled in the second half of October 1940 by ship to the United States where he remained resident. By March 1941, he lived in New York City, he lived from June to December 1941 in San Francisco, then returned to New York. On 19 February 1942, he received the " Alien Registration Cards pink and yellow" with photo and in his own name. 1944, he published The leader - Hitler 's Rise to Power by Houghton Mifflin. There was widespread on the Book-of - the-Month Club in the U.S. and on the Left Book Club, with its 57,000 members in the UK ( not yet published in German language ). It was his most acclaimed and popular book.
Last years (1951-1966)
From December 1951 to May 1952, Heiden for the first time after the Second World War to Germany, he traveled by plane. 1952 to 1961 he contributed on behalf of the South German Radio in Stuttgart contributions to the weekly quarter-hour broadcast " from a Big Country " at. He produced Related posts for Radio Bremen. Starting in 1954, wrote Pagans for the Süddeutsche Rundfunk monthly SWL under the title " Four weeks America." He has also written for American magazines, including for Life Magazine.
Due to an ever -worsening Parkinson 's disease is Heidens ability to work at the same time reduced more and more. Heiden became an American citizen. He now lived most of the time in Orleans, Massachusetts. Konrad Heiden was not married but had a girlfriend, Margaret A. Van Weert, who died in April 1961. 1962 Heiden was a nursing case after two operations on the head. To own work, he was barely able. On June 18, 1966 Konrad Heiden died in " Beth Abraham Hospital" in the Bronx in New York City.
A smaller inventory of Heiden's estate, including his youth in particular material is now in the Zurich Central Library.
Works
- History of National Socialism. The career of an idea. Rowohlt, Berlin, 1932.
- Birth of the Third Reich. The history of National Socialism until 1933. Europa Verlag, Zurich, 1934.
- Hitler rages. The blood tragedy of the 30th June 1934. 1934 ( under the pseudonym Klaus Bredow ).
- Are the Nazis Socialists? 1934 ( under the pseudonym Klaus Bredow ).
- Hitler biography. Europe, Zurich 1936-1937: ( Volume 1 :) Adolf Hitler. The age of irresponsibility. A Biography. Europe -Verlag, Zurich 1936, 464 pages; distributed in 31,000 copies ( along with English, American and French editions published ) ibid edition 2007, ISBN 3-905811022.
- ( Volume 2 :) Adolf Hitler. A Biography. One man against Europe. 1937, 15,500 copies, reissue 2007, ISBN 3-905811049.
- French: Les Vepres Hitleriensis. Paris 1939.
- German: One night in November 1938 A contemporary report.. Wallenstein, 2013.
Swell
- Institute for Contemporary History - Archives in Munich.
- Zurich Central Library, Department of Manuscripts, Archives Publishing Oprecht.