Franz Werfel
Franz Werfel was a notable Austrian-Bohemian writer born on September 10, 1890, in Prague, then part of Austria-Hungary. Initially pressured by his father to pursue a career in business, Werfel's passion for literature led him to abandon traditional academic paths, instead forging connections with influential contemporaries. His literary career blossomed during the early 20th century, producing significant works in poetry, drama, and prose. Notably, he took a pacifist stance during World War I, which influenced his early poetry and subsequent works. His most acclaimed novel, "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh," highlights the Armenian resistance, reflecting his engagement with historical and cultural themes, particularly relating to Jewish history.
After fleeing Europe during the rise of Nazi Germany, Werfel found refuge in the United States, where he continued to write, producing the celebrated "The Song of Bernadette." His works often explore themes of faith, identity, and the human experience, resonating with diverse audiences. Werfel's literary legacy remains impactful, characterized by his rich storytelling and exploration of profound human dilemmas, until his death in 1945.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Franz Werfel
Czech novelist and playwright.
- Born: September 10, 1890
- Place of birth: Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Prague, Czech Republic)
- Died: August 26, 1945
- Place of death: Beverly Hills, California
Biography
Franz Werfel was born in Prague in the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of Austria-Hungary, on September 10, 1890. His father, Rudolf Werfel, the owner of a glove factory, was intensely interested in art and music, but he saw in his son only a future partner and heir to the business, and so he opposed Werfel’s early inclinations toward literature. Werfel was educated at the local gymnasium (secondary school) and then spent some time (1909–10) at the University of Prague. Having had the pleasure of seeing some of his work in print, Werfel had little interest in an academic career, preferring to spend his time writing and discussing literature with friends, who included such recognized writers as Gustav Meyrink, Max Brod, and Otokar Březina.
After leaving university in 1910, Werfel went to Hamburg, Germany, at the urging of his father and took an apprenticeship at a shipping agency, while continuing to write. Following a year of compulsory military service, from fall 1911 to September 1912, he settled for a time in Leipzig, where he became a publisher’s reader. With the beginning of World War I, he took a pacifist stand, publishing pacifist poems such as “Der Krieg” (The war) and “Die Wortemacher des Krieges” (The propagandists of war), both of which were written in August 1914 and appeared in his poetry collection Einander (Each other, 1915). Despite his attitude toward the war, Werfel was called into the service as an officer in an artillery regiment and served during 1916–17. In 1916 Die Troerinnen des Euripedes (1915), his adaptation of Euripides’s The Trojan Women, had a successful season on the Berlin stage and in other cities. By the time he was thirty, Werfel had made for himself a reputation in both poetry and drama and had written and published a short novel, Nicht der Mörder (1920; Not the Murderer, 1937).
During the early 1920s Werfel’s work was primarily in drama. Spiegelmensch (Mirror man, 1920) opened simultaneously on stages in Dusseldorf, Leipzig, and Stuttgart. Werfel’s first play to appear on the American stage was Bocksgesang (1921; Goat Song, 1926), produced in New York in 1926. One of his most popular plays was Juárez und Maximilian (1924; Juárez and Maximilian, 1926), which after a successful run in Europe was translated into English and produced in New York before being made into a 1934 Mexican motion picture. Three religious plays were written in the late 1920s and the 1930s: Paulus unter den Juden (1926; Paul among the Jews, 1928), Das Reich Gottes in Böhmen (1930; The Kingdom of God in Bohemia, 1931), and Der Weg der Verheissung (1935; The Eternal Road, 1936). The latter, a presentation of early Jewish history, was translated into English and produced in New York in 1936.
From 1925 on, Werfel was primarily wrote prose fiction, and a series of stories and short novels preceded his more important novels. In the United States his popularity came with The Forty Days of Musa Dagh (1934), the English translation of Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh (1933), a novel based on the Armenian resistance to the Turks. Höret die Stimme (1937; Hearken unto the Voice, 1938) shows the author’s continued interest in Jewish history. Der veruntreute Himmel (1939; Embezzled Heaven, 1940), also popular in the United States, illustrates how Werfel’s religiosity caused him to become highly sympathetic to Roman Catholicism.
After World War I Werfel lived in Vienna. At the time of the Anschluss, he fled to Paris, only to become a fugitive once again when the Germans invaded France. Eventually he reached the United States and safety. While escaping from the Germans, Werfel had found a temporary refuge at Lourdes. While there, he vowed to write a book about the young woman who had seen a vision of the Virgin Mary at that shrine. He fulfilled that vow in 1941 with the publication of Das Lied von Bernadette (The Song of Bernadette, 1942). A play, Jacobowsky and the Colonel, was successfully produced in New York in 1944—the same year the original version, Jacobowsky und der Oberst, was first produced in German—and an English selection of his verse, Poems, was published in 1945 by translator Edith Abercrombie Snow. Werfel and his wife, Anna, the widow of the composer Gustav Mahler, moved to Hollywood, where Werfel continued to write despite failing health. His last novel, Stern der Ungeborenen (1946; Star of the Unborn, 1946), was completed only days before he succumbed to a heart attack on August 26, 1945. An incomplete novel, Cella oder Die Überwinder (1954; Cella; or, The Survivors, 1989), was published posthumously.
Author Works
Long Fiction:
Nicht der Mörder, der Ermordete ist schuldig: Eine Novelle, 1920 (Not the Murderer, in Twilight of a World, 1937)
Verdi: Roman der Oper, 1924 (Verdi: A Novel of the Opera, 1925)
Der Tod des Kleinbürgers, 1927 (novella; The Man Who Conquered Death, 1927; also known as The Death of a Poor Man, 1927)
Der Abituriententag, 1928 (Class Reunion, 1929)
Barbara; oder, Die Frömmigkeit, 1929 (The Pure in Heart, 1931; also known as The Hidden Child, 1931)
Die Geschwister von Neapel, 1931 (The Pascarella Family, 1932)
Kleine Verhältnisse, 1931 (novella; Poor People, in Twilight of a World, 1937)
Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh, 1933 (The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, 1934)
Höret die Stimme, 1937 (Hearken unto the Voice, 1938)
Der veruntreute Himmel: Die Geschichte einer Magd, 1939 (Embezzled Heaven, 1940)
Das Lied von Bernadette, 1941 (The Song of Bernadette, 1942)
Stern der Ungeborenen: Ein Reiseroman, 1946 (Star of the Unborn, 1946)
Cella oder Die Überwinder, 1954 (Cella; or, The Survivors, 1989)
Short Fiction:
Geheimnis eines Menschen: Novellen, 1927 (Saverio’s Secret, in Twilight of a World, 1937)
Twilight of a World, 1937 (Helen T. Lowe-Porter, translator)
Erzählungen aus zwei Welten, 1948–54 (3 volumes; part of Gesammelte Werke)
Drama:
Der Besuch aus dem Elysium, pb. 1912
Die Versuchung, pb. 1913
Die Troerinnen des Euripedes, pb. 1915 (a free adaptation of Euripides’s The Trojan Women)
Die Mittagsgöttin, pb. 1919
Spiegelmensch, pb. 1920
Bocksgesang, pb. 1921 (Goat Song, 1926)
Schweiger, pb. 1922 (English translation, 1926)
Juárez und Maximilian, pb. 1924 (Juárez and Maximilian, 1926)
Paulus unter den Juden, pr., pb. 1926 (Paul among the Jews, 1928)
Das Reich Gottes in Böhmen, pr., pb. 1930 (The Kingdom of God in Bohemia, 1931)
Der Weg der Verheissung, pb. 1935 (The Eternal Road, 1936)
In einer Nacht, pr., pb. 1937
Jacobowsky und der Oberst, pr. 1944 (Jacobowsky and the Colonel, 1944)
Poetry:
Der Weltfreund, 1911
Wir sind, 1913
Einander: Oden, Lieder, Gestalten, 1915
Der Gerichtstag: In fünf Büchen, 1919
Poems, 1945 (Edith Abercrombie Snow, translator)
Miscellaneous:
Gesammelte Werke, 1948–75 (16 volumes)
Bibliography
Keegan, Susanne. The Bride of the Wind: The Life and Times of Alma Mahler-Werfel. 1991. Viking, 1992. A biography of Werfel’s wife that describes their life together and depicts twentieth-century Austria. Includes bibliography and index.
Heizer, Donna K. Jewish-German Identity in the Orientalist Literature of Else Lasker-Schüler, Friedrich Wolf, and Franz Werfel. Camden House, 1996. Compares and contrasts the works of Werfel, Else Lasker-Schüler, and Friedrich Wolf, paying particular attention to the issue of Jewish German identity. Includes bibliography and index.
Huber, Lothar, editor. Franz Werfel: An Austrian Writer Reassessed. Berg Publishers, 1989. A collection of papers presented at an international symposium on Werfel, discussing his life and works. Includes bibliography.
Jungk, Peter Stephan. Franz Werfel: A Life in Prague, Vienna, and Hollywood. Translated by Anselm Hollo, Grove Weidenfeld, 1990. A biography of Werfel that covers his life and works. Includes bibliography and indexes.
Michaels, Jennifer E. Franz Werfel and the Critics.Camden House, 1994. An examination of the critical reaction to Werfel’s literary works. Includes bibliography and index.
Wagener, Hans. Understanding Franz Werfel. U of South Carolina P, 1993. Includes a detailed study of Werfel’s prose works in chapter 4, with each major title receiving a separate discussion. Provides notes and an annotated bibliography.