Friedrich Torberg
Friedrich Torberg, born Friedrich Kantor in 1908 in Vienna, was a notable Austrian-Jewish writer whose work spanned journalism, fiction, and criticism. After his family relocated to Prague in 1922, he adopted the pen name Torberg and gained recognition primarily for his prose, particularly his novels. His breakthrough novel, "Der Schüler Gerber hat absolviert" (1930), explores themes of authoritarianism through the tragic story of a student oppressed by a tyrannical teacher. Following the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938, Torberg fled Europe, eventually settling in the United States, where he worked as a screenwriter and journalist. His postwar writings often addressed the Holocaust and the plight of European Jews, with works like "Mein ist die Rache" (1943) reflecting on these themes. Upon his return to Vienna in 1951, he became a prominent figure in cultural discussions, although his association with anticommunist circles, such as the Congress for Cultural Freedom, later affected his reputation. Torberg's extensive literary output included novels, parodies, and translations, and his legacy remains significant in Austrian literature, particularly for his insights into Jewish life and the moral complexities faced during tumultuous times. He passed away on November 10, 1979, leaving behind a rich collection of essays and letters that continue to be studied.
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Friedrich Torberg
Fiction and Nonfiction Writer and Poet
- Born: September 16, 1908
- Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
- Died: November 10, 1979
- Place of death: Vienna, Austria
Biography
Friedrich Torberg was born Friedrich Kantor in 1908 in Vienna, Austria, the son of Alfred Kantor. His parents were Jewish. In 1922, the family moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia. In 1930, he legally changed his name to Kantor-Berg, combining his mother’s family name to his own, but he wrote under the pen- name of Torberg. He was a versatile writer and of considerable influence in Austria after World War II.
Torberg began his career as a freelance journalist, contributing to newspapers in Prague, Vienna, and Leipzig, Germany. In 1929, he published a collection of verse, Der ewige Refrain, but his real talent was writing prose, not poetry. The next year he published a novel that established him as a writer, Der Schüler Gerber hat absolviert (1930; The Examination, 1932). The novel tells the story of a sensitive student under the tyranny of a teacher who makes the student consider himself a failure, leading him to commit suicide. The subtext of the novel deals with the growing authoritarianism and totalitarianism of the political scene, a theme Torberg examined many times in later work.
His second novel, —und Glaubten, es wäre die Liebe, was published in 1932 and his third novel, Die Mannschaft, appeared in 1935. In 1938, after Czechoslovakia was invaded by Nazi Germany, Torberg was forced to flee, first going to Switzerland and then to Paris, where he joined the Free Czech Army for a year before immigrating to the United States. He was employed as a Hollywood screenwriter for a time, then moved to New York, where he wrote for the German edition of Time magazine, among others, and eventually became an American citizen. His fictional writing particularly focused on the Holocaust and the fate of European Jews and the psychological effect of the their persecution, as in his novel Mein ist die Rache (1943).
In 1951, he returned to Vienna, taking a job on the daily Kurier and the radio station Sender-Rot-Weiss-Rot, partly financed by the American occupation forces. He became a staunch anticommunist and was associated with the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a group strongly supportive of American-style democracy. In later years, the organization was accused of being a front for the Central Intelligence Agency and Torberg lost some of his popularity through this association. He edited the influential right-wing journal Forum: The Austrian Monthly of Cultural Freedom, which was published from 1954 through 1965. Despite his strongly expressed views which made him many enemies, he never joined a political party, nor did he renounce his American citizenship, even though he lived in Vienna for the rest of his life.
Torberg continued to write fiction extensively. Die zweite Begegnung (1950); Hier bin ich, mein Vater (1962), focusing on the Holocaust and the moral dilemmas Jews faced in trying to survive; and Süsskind von Trimberg (1972), about a thirteenth century Jewish minstrel, are three of his postwar novels. Golems Wiederkehr, und andere Erzählungen (1968) is a collection of four novellas and Die Tante Jolesch: Oder, Der Untergang des Abendlandes in Anekdoten (1975) is a semiautobiographical collection of stories and memories of Jewish life in prewar Vienna and Prague. Its sequel, Die Erben der Tante Jolesch (1978), was published the year before his death.
Toring was a powerful parodist and satirist, as can be seen in his P.P.P.: Pamplete, Parodien, und Post Scripta (1964). He also translated the works of Ephraim Kishon, a noted Jewish writer; edited the works of Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando, an Austrian writer; and was a drama critic, whose pieces were collected in Das fünfte Rad am Thespiskarren ( 1966- 1967). After his death on November 10, 1979, several collections of his letters, essays, and other works were published.