Franz Jung
Franz Jung was a notable German writer and political activist born on November 26, 1888, in Neisse, Germany (now Nysa, Poland). He had a diverse career path, studying law and economics at various universities but not completing his degree. Jung was involved in the anarchist movement and was associated with notable figures like Erich Muhsam and Otto Gross, which significantly influenced his literary work. During World War I, he volunteered for the German army but deserted and faced imprisonment. After the war, he briefly joined the Communist Party but later founded the Communist Workers Party, becoming involved in leftist activism. Jung's literary contributions included expressionist novels and plays performed in revolutionary contexts, although he faced legal troubles and imprisonment due to his political activities. His later years included time in the United States and a return to Germany, where his works began to gain recognition as pivotal contributions to German modernism. He passed away on January 21, 1963, in Stuttgart, West Germany.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Franz Jung
Writer
- Born: November 26, 1888
- Birthplace: Neisse, Upper Silesia, Germany (now Nysa, Poland)
- Died: January 21, 1963
- Place of death: Stuttgart, Germany
Biography
Franz Jung was born on November 26, 1888, in Neisse, Germany (now Nysa, Poland). His mother was Clara Dohring Jung, and his father was Franz Josef Jung, a watchmaker, city councilman, dramatist, and amateur composer. Jung studied law and economics at the Universities of Leipzig, Jena, Breslau, and Munich, failing to complete a dissertation in economics. In 1909, he married Margot Rhein, a nightclub dancer. The marriage produced a son, Frank, and a daughter, Dagny. Jung later married Clare Ohring.
Despite some success as an insurance agent, economic journalist, and entrepreneur, Jung supported political anarchism. He joined Gruppe Tat, writer Erich Muhsam’s circle of Munich anarchists in 1912, and was friends with anarchist psychoanalyst Otto Gross, perhaps the major influence on his work. Jung volunteered at the beginning of World War I but deserted the German army after the battle of Tannenberg in 1914 and was imprisoned for six months. After the war, he joined the Communist Party but was dropped from membership because of his opposition to the party’s organizational structure. Jung then formed the Communist Workers Party and hijacked a fishing trailer to go to the Soviet Union, where Soviet leader Vladimir Ilich Lenin urged him to make peace with the other party. After such efforts failed, he abandoned the Communist Workers but remained active in left-wing causes. He was imprisoned again, this time for the hijacking.
His first novel, Das Trottelbuch, published in 1912, embraced an expressionist approach to literature through such devices as descriptions of meaningless activity and taunting his readers. His second stint in prison encouraged him to create theater for workers; as a result, two of his plays, Wie lange noch, and Die Kanaker, were performed at Erwin Piscator’s Proletarian Theater in 1921. Jung was arrested twice in 1921 for revolutionary activities. Acquiring Soviet citizenship, he managed two industrial installations in the Soviet Union until infighting and bureaucracy dampened his enthusiasm in 1923.
Returning to Germany, he tried to create more experimental theater but had considerably less success. As a result, he began focusing on fiction and essays about a variety of topics, including the work of his friend Gross. Jung was arrested several times in the Nazi era, and in 1945 the American army freed him from a concentration camp in Bozen, Italy. He spent 1948 to 1959 in the United States as an economics correspondent for German newspapers. Jung returned to Germany in 1960, and his works began to be reevaluated following the publication of his autobiography in 1961. By the 1970’s, his writings, such as the novel Der Fall Gross (1921), were considered classics of German modernism. He died on January 21, 1963, in Stuttgart, West Germany.