Robert Neumann (writer)

Robert Neumann (22 May 1897, in Vienna – 3 January 1975, in Munich) was a German and English-speaking writer. He published numerous novels, autobiographical texts, plays and radio plays as well a few scripts. Through his parody collections, ''Mit fremden Federn'' (''With Strange Feathers'') (1927) and ''Unter falscher Flagge'' (''Under False Flag'') (1932), he is considered as the founder of "parody as a critical genre in the literature of the 1920s."

Life

Robert Neumann was the son of a Jewish bank clerk with social democratic leanings. Neumann studied medicine, chemistry, and one semester of German studies from 1915 to 1919 in Vienna. He worked as a cashier, swim coach, and associate for a food importing company, but was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1925. Afterwards he worked for a short time as a sailor and cargo supervisor on a cruise ship.

Having already published small volumes of lyric poetry in 1919 and 1923, he succeeded in a literary breakthrough in parody with the collection ''Mit fremden Federn'' in 1927. In a survey called ''Thomas Mann'' judged that book the best of the year. Neumann thus established himself and became a freelance writer. In rapid succession he published other novels, parodies and plays. In addition, he lectured and worked as a literary critic for, among others, ''Die Literatur'' and ''Die Literarische Welt''. His parodies were so successful that his other work faded by contrast. Rudolf Walter Leonhardt later wrote in his obituary of Robert Neumann about his public success: "Two narrow bands have a lifetime of fifteen thick volumes buried."Rudolf Walter Leonhardt:
Vielleicht das Heitere
'' In: '' Die Zeit.'' 10. Januar 1975.

Neumann's works were victims of Nazi book burnings in 1933 and were banned by the Third Reich. Immediately after the establishment of the Austro-fascist dictatorship in February 1934, he left Vienna and went into exile in Britain. In 1936 and 1937 he spent a few months in Austria, where the libraries were purged of his works. Until 1938 his novels still appeared in Switzerland.

He was one of few writers in exile who managed to get published in England. In 1935 he wrote the story for the British film ''Abdul the Damned'' with Fritz Kortner in the lead role. After the occupation of Austria in 1938, he organized the "Free Austrian P.E.N.-Club" in London to assist writers threatened by Nazis to leave their country. In 1939, he applied for British citizenship, but did not receive it until 1947. Instead, he was interned in 1940 for a few months as an "enemy alien." During the war years he periodically delivered reviews for the BBC
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