Nackenheim, Germany, 1896 — Visp, Swizterland, 1977

 

Playwright

 

An opponent and open critic of the Nazi regime, his works were banned in 1933 and when Austria was annexed in March 1938 he was forced to flee at the last moment to Zurich. He then went into exile in the USA via Paris and Rotterdam, at the invitation of journalist Dorothy Thompson, but didn’t have an easy life in America. Initially he tried writing screenplays in Hollywood, but when he felt that his “independence and productivity” were being threatened, he went to New York to teach at the acting school founded by Erwin Piscator at the New School for Social Research. He found little satisfaction in that activity either, and decided to try life as a farmer in Vermont, at a farm known as “Twin Farms”. It was there that in 1943 he wrote 150 dossiers for the Office of Strategic Services about principal actors, directors, publishers and journalists in Nazi Germany. These dossiers were published in 2002.

 

His most successful play was The Devil’s General, about the German aviator Ernst Udet. The play opened in 1945 in Zurich and was performed over 2,000 times between 1948-1949 alone. Zuckmayer remained in the USA until 1957 and then returned to Switzerland, where he remained until his death. His book of memoirs, Als waer’s ein Stueck von mir, became a bestseller, selling over a million copies.

 

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