Oscar Berger (May 12, 1901 – May 15, 1997) was a well-known

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfred Grévin (1827–1892) * Alf ...

and cartoonist.

Biography

Berger was born in Prešov,

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. He became a cartoonist in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

and studied art in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. In Berlin, he secured an assignment with one of the largest Berlin daily newspapers and was one of the few journalists admitted to the 1923 Munich trial that followed

Hitler's Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

abortive putsch. Later, when Hitler came to power, Berger's cartoons angered Hitler and Berger was forced to leave the country. He spent time in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, and

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, where he attended numerous sessions at the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

. He finally settled in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1935, where he worked for the '' Daily Telegraph''. During the 1950s, Berger attended many sessions at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

and illustrated virtually every important world leader to be seen there. His work subsequently appeared in ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'', the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', the '' New York Herald Tribune'' and ''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...

'', among numerous other publications. Oscar Berger's works were described by a contemporary as:

kindly rather than critical, mildly satirical but never vicious. They aim to entertain, to identify a sitter so unmistakably that a few telling lines will be telegraphed at a glance.

Some of Berger's books: *''Aesop's Foibles'' (1947) * ''a' la Carte - The Gourmet's Phantasmagoria in Fifty Cartoons'' (1948) * ''Famous Faces - Caricaturist's Scrapbook'' (1950) * ''My Victims - How to Caricature'' (1952) * ''I Love You - A selection of love poetry'' (1960) * ''The Presidents - From George Washington to the Present'' (1968)

Personal life

Berger married Aran (Anne) Varga, from Kispest, Hungary. Anne and Oscar Berger emigrated to the U.S. from England and spent the rest of their lives on Central Park South in Manhattan. Their niece, L.O. Aranye Fradenburg, is an English Professor at UC Santa Barbara. He is survived by cousins in NY through an aunt, Hermina Berger Tisch.

External links

Official Website

1901 births 1997 deaths American editorial cartoonists American caricaturists American people of Slovak descent Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States Slovak caricaturists Slovak cartoonists People from Prešov {{cartoonist-stub