Johannes Urzidil
Johannes Urzidil was a Czech-born writer and journalist, born in Prague in 1896 to a German-speaking family. He pursued studies in German and Slavic literature at the German University of Prague, where he also began publishing poetry. Urzidil's literary career flourished during the 1920s, influenced by the expressionist movement, and he worked as a journalist while facing increasing political tensions as the Nazi regime rose to power in Germany. In 1939, he and his wife fled to New York, where Urzidil continued to write for Czech publications and later for the Voice of America. His work often reflects his nostalgia for his homeland and explores themes of human resilience. Notable among his works is "Die verlorene Geliebte" (The Lost Lover), published in 1956, which marked a significant success in his literary career. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he received various prestigious awards and made several lecture tours across Europe. Urzidil's life ended in Rome in 1970, leaving a legacy that bridges his Czech roots and his experiences in America.
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Johannes Urzidil
Writer
- Born: February 3, 1896
- Birthplace: Prague (now in the Czech Republic)
- Died: November 2, 1970
- Place of death: Rome, Italy
Biography
Johannis Urzidil was born in Prague (now located in the Czech Republic) in 1896; his family belonged to the German-speaking minority in that city. He attended the city’s gymnasium (private high school), which specialized in Greek and Latin; later, at the German University of Prague he majored in German and Slavic studies. During World War I, he completed his military service in Prague. At the same time, he began to publish poems in a German-language newspaper. Soon, his stories began to appear in German journals, much influenced by the expressionist movement, which dominated German letters of the time.
In the 1920’s, Urzidil began a career in journalism, writing as a correspondent for a Berlin news agency and as a press officer for the German embassy. In 1922, he married Gertrud Thieberger, a poet. Urzidil and his wife were increasingly threatened as the Nazis came into power; his mother had been the daughter of a rabbi, and he had written many articles which conflicted with Nazi racism. The Urzidils escaped Prague in 1939, landing eventually in New York. During the war, Urzidil wrote for Czech papers in America; after the war he worked for the Voice of America but was fired because of suggestions by Senator Joseph McCarthy that he was a Communist sympathizer.
In the 1950’s, German companies began to publish Urzidil’s work, which he continued to produce in German. Die verlorene Geliebte (the lost lover) was his first substantive success in 1956, a collection of autobiographical stories that conveyed Urzidil’s sense of loss of homeland. The volume was the first of a weighty list of fiction in which Urzidil portrayed the Prague of his past and the America in which he now lived. His themes focused on the things which enable human beings to endure the pains of living.
Urzidil had become friends with the American journalistDorothy Thompson, a connection that introduced him to a variety of American writers and artists who in turn kept him from feeling as though he had lost all cultural connections. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, Urzidil won a number of prestigious European prizes, including the National Prize of Austria and the Andreas Gryphius Prize. He made a succession of European lecture tours during those decades, and in 1970, on the last tour, he died in Rome.