Austrian novelist and journalist
Moses Joseph Roth
(2 September 1894 ? 27 May 1939) was an
Austrian-Jewish
journalist and novelist, best known for his
family saga
Radetzky March
(1932), about the decline and fall of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
, his novel of Jewish life
Job
(1930) and his seminal essay "Juden auf Wanderschaft" (1927; translated into English as
The Wandering Jews
), a fragmented account of the Jewish migrations from eastern to western Europe in the aftermath of
World War I
and the
Russian Revolution
.
[1]
[2]
In the 21st century, publications in English of
Radetzky March
and of collections of his journalism from Berlin and Paris created a revival of interest in Roth.
Biography
[
edit
]
Joseph Roth was born into a
Jewish
family and grew up in
Brody
(currently in Ukraine), a small town near
Lemberg
in
East Galicia
, in the easternmost reaches of what was then the
Austro-Hungarian empire
.
Jewish culture
played an important role in the life of the town, which
had a large Jewish population
. Roth grew up with his mother and her relatives; he never saw his father, who had disappeared before he was born.
[3]
After secondary school, Joseph Roth moved to Lemberg to begin his university studies in 1913, before transferring to the
University of Vienna
in 1914 to study philosophy and
German literature
. In 1916, Roth broke off his university studies and volunteered to serve in the
Austro-Hungarian Army
on the
Eastern Front
, "though possibly only as an army journalist or censor".
[3]
This experience had a major and long-lasting influence on his life. So, too, did the collapse in 1918 of the
Habsburg Empire
, which marked the beginning of a pronounced sense of "homelessness" that was to feature regularly in his work. As he wrote: "My strongest experience was the War and the destruction of my fatherland, the only one I ever had, the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary."
[4]
Roth married Friederike (Friedl) Reichler in 1922. In the late 1920s, his wife became
schizophrenic
, which threw Roth into a deep crisis, both emotionally and financially. She lived for years in a sanatorium and was later murdered in the Nazis'
Aktion T4
programme.
[5]
In 1929 he met Andrea Manga Bell, born in Hamburg and unhappily married to
Alexandre Douala Manga Bell
, Prince of
Douala
in
Cameroon
. Her husband had returned to Cameroon while she and their children stayed in Europe. When Roth met her, she was editor of the Ullstein magazine
Gebrauchsgraphik
.
[6]
Being a prominent liberal Jewish journalist, Roth left Germany when
Adolf Hitler
became
Reich
Chancellor
on
30 January 1933
. Andrea Manga Bell accompanied him with her children. He spent most of the next six years in Paris, a city he loved. His essays written in France display a delight in the city and its culture.
Shortly after Hitler's rise to power, in February 1933, Roth wrote in a prophetic letter to his friend, the Austrian writer
Stefan Zweig
:
You will have realized by now that we are drifting towards great catastrophes. Apart from the private?our literary and financial existence is destroyed?it all leads to a new war. I won't bet a penny on our lives. They have succeeded in establishing a reign of barbarity. Do not fool yourself. Hell reigns.
[7]
The relationship with Andrea Manga Bell failed due to financial problems and Roth's jealousy. From 1936 to 1938, Roth had a romantic relationship with
Irmgard Keun
. They worked together, traveling to Paris,
Wilna
,
Lemberg
, Warsaw, Vienna, Salzburg, Brussels and Amsterdam.
Without denying his Jewish origins, Roth considered his relationship to
Catholicism
very important. In the final years of his life, he may have converted: Michael Hofmann states in the preface to the collection of essays
The White Cities
(also published as
Report from a Parisian Paradise
) that Roth "was said to have had two funerals, one Jewish, one Catholic".
In his last years, he moved from hotel to hotel, drinking heavily, and becoming increasingly anxious about money and the future. Despite suffering from chronic
alcoholism
, he remained prolific until his death in Paris in 1939.
[8]
His novella
The Legend of the Holy Drinker
(1939) chronicles the attempts made by an alcoholic vagrant to regain his dignity and honor a debt.
Roth's final collapse was precipitated by hearing the news that the playwright
Ernst Toller
had hanged himself in New York.
[9]
Roth died from
pneumonia
on 27 May 1939 and was buried on 30 May at the
Cimetiere de Thiais
, south of Paris.
Journalism and literary career
[
edit
]
In 1918, Roth returned to Vienna and began writing for
left-wing
newspapers, signing articles published by
Vorwarts
as
Der rote Joseph
(
The red Joseph
, a play on his surname, which is homophonous with German
rot
, "red", which is also the signalling color of communist parties in Europe). In 1920 he moved to Berlin, where he worked as a successful journalist for the
Neue Berliner Zeitung
[
de
]
and, from 1921, for the
Berliner Borsen-Courier
. In 1923 he began his association with the liberal
Frankfurter Zeitung
, traveling widely throughout Europe, and reporting from the South of France, the USSR, Albania, Poland, Italy, and Germany. According to his main English translator,
Michael Hofmann
, "He was one of the most distinguished and best-paid journalists of the period, being paid at the dream rate of one
Deutschmark
per line."
[9]
In 1925 he spent a period working in France. He never again resided permanently in Berlin.
Roth has been referred to as one of the novelists who helped the emergence of what is nowadays called the
Habsburg Myth
.
[10]
In 1923, Roth's first (unfinished) novel,
The Spider's Web
, was serialized in an Austrian newspaper. He went on to achieve moderate success as a novelist with a series of books exploring life in post-war Europe, but only upon publication of
Job
and
Radetzky March
did he achieve acclaim for his fiction rather than his journalism.
From 1930, Roth's fiction became less concerned with contemporary society, with which he had become increasingly disillusioned, and began to evoke a
melancholic
nostalgia
for life in imperial
Central Europe
before 1914. He often portrayed the fate of homeless wanderers looking for a place to live, in particular Jews and former citizens of the old Austria-Hungary, who, with the downfall of the monarchy, had lost their only possible
Heimat
("true home"). In his later works, Roth appeared to wish that the monarchy could be restored. His longing for a more tolerant past may be partly explained as a reaction against the political extremism of the time, which culminated in Germany with
National Socialism
. The novel
Radetzky March
(1932) and the story "The Bust of the Emperor" (1935) are typical of this late phase. In another novel,
The Emperor's Tomb
(1938), Roth describes the fate of a cousin of the hero of
Radetzky March
up to Germany's
annexation
of Austria in 1938.
Published works
[
edit
]
Fiction
Non-Fiction
- The Wandering Jews
(
Juden auf Wanderschaft
) (1927; reportage)
- The Antichrist
(
Der Antichrist
) (essay, 1934)
- What I Saw: Reports from Berlin, 1920?1933
, trans. by Michael Hofmann, New York: W. W. Norton (2002) and London: Granta Books (2003)
- The White Cities: Reports from France, 1925?39
, trans. by Michael Hofmann, London: Granta Books (2004); issued in the United States as
Report from a Parisian Paradise: Essays from France, 1925?1939
, New York: W. W. Norton & Company (2004)
- Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters
, trans. and edited by Michael Hofmann, New York: W. W. Norton (2012)
- The Hotel Years
, trans. and edited by Michael Hofmann, New York: New Directions (2015)
Filmography
[
edit
]
- Sins of Man
, directed by
Otto Brower
(1936, based on the novel
Job
), starring
Jean Hersholt
- Die Rebellion
, directed by
Wolfgang Staudte
(TV film, 1962, based on the novel
Rebellion
), starring
Josef Meinrad
- Die Legende vom heiligen Trinker
, directed by
Franz Josef Wild
[
de
]
(TV film, 1963, based on the novel
The Legend of the Holy Drinker
), starring
Hannes Messemer
- Radetzkymarsch
[
de
]
, directed by
Michael Kehlmann
(TV film, 1965, based on the novel
Radetzky March
), starring
Helmuth Lohner
- Die Geschichte der 1002. Nacht
, directed by
Peter Beauvais
(TV film, 1969, based on the novel
The String of Pearls
), starring
Johanna Matz
- Beichte eines Morders
, directed by
Wilm ten Haaf
(TV miniseries, 1969, based on the novel
Confession of a Murderer
), starring
Hannelore Elsner
- Trotta
, directed by
Johannes Schaaf
(1971, based on the novel
The Emperor's Tomb
), starring
Doris Kunstmann
- The False Weight
[
de
]
, directed by
Bernhard Wicki
(1971, based on the novel
Weights and Measures
), starring
Helmut Qualtinger
- Stationschef Fallmerayer
, directed by
Walter Davy
(TV film, 1976, based on the novella
Stationschef Fallmerayer
), starring
Odile Versois
- Job
[
de
]
, directed by
Michael Kehlmann
(TV miniseries, 1978, based on the novel
Job
), starring
Gunter Mack
- Geschichte einer Liebe
[
de
]
, directed by
Dagmar Damek
(TV film, 1978, based on the story
April: The Story of a Love Affair
), starring
Bruno Ganz
- Tarabas
, directed by
Michael Kehlmann
(TV film, 1981, based on the novel
Tarabas
), starring
Helmuth Lohner
- Die Flucht ohne Ende
, directed by
Michael Kehlmann
(TV film, 1985, based on the novel
Flight without End
), starring
Helmuth Lohner
and
Mario Adorf
- The Legend of the Holy Drinker
, directed by
Ermanno Olmi
(1988, based on the novel
The Legend of the Holy Drinker
), starring
Rutger Hauer
- Spider's Web
, directed by
Bernhard Wicki
(1989, based on the novel
The Spider's Web
), starring
Ulrich Muhe
,
Armin Mueller-Stahl
and
Klaus Maria Brandauer
- Die Rebellion
, directed by
Michael Haneke
(TV film, 1993, based on the novel
Rebellion
)
- Radetzkymarsch
[
de
]
, directed by
Axel Corti
(TV miniseries, 1994, based on the novel
Radetzky March
), starring
Max von Sydow
and
Charlotte Rampling
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Liukkonen, Petri.
"Joseph Roth"
.
Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi)
. Finland:
Kuusankoski
Public Library. Archived from
the original
on 23 September 2010.
- ^
Author biography in
Radetzky March
, Penguin Modern Classics, 1984.
- ^
a
b
Hofmann, Michael
. "About the author",
The Wandering Jews
, Granta Books, p. 141.
ISBN
1-86207-392-9
- ^
As quoted in: Lazaroms, Ilse Josepha (2014-10-08), "Roth, Joseph",
1914?1918-online
/
International Encyclopedia of the First World War
. Issued by Freie Universitat Berlin.
doi
:
10.15463/ie1418.10244
. The quotation is from a letter to Otto Forst-Battaglia, dated 28 October 1932.
- ^
"European Dreams: Rediscovering Joseph Roth"
.
The New Yorker
. 19 January 2004.
- ^
Robbie Aitken, Eve Rosenhaft: Black Germany: The Making and Unmaking of a Diaspora Community, 1884?1960. Cambridge 2013, pp. 114f.
ISBN
1107435641
, 9781107435643
- ^
38. Hell reigns. Letter of Joseph Roth to Stefan Zweig, February 1933.
Hitlers Machtergreifung
, edited by Josef & Ruth Becker, Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 2nd edition, Munich, Germany, 1992, p. 70.
ISBN
3-423-02938-2
- ^
A Timely Biography Traces Joseph Roth’s Accounts of Fascism
- ^
a
b
Hofmann, Michael. "About the Author",
The Wandering Jews
, Granta Books, p. 142.
ISBN
1-86207-392-9
- ^
Thompson, Helen
(2020).
"The Habsburg Myth and the European Union"
. In Duina, Francesco; Merand, Frederic (eds.).
Europe's Malaise: The Long View
. Vol. 27.
Emerald Group Publishing
. pp. 45?66.
doi
:
10.1108/S0895-993520200000027005
.
ISBN
978-1-83909-042-4
.
ISSN
0895-9935
.
S2CID
224991526
.
- ^
Nurnberger, Helmuth.
Joseph Roth
. Reinbek, Hamburg, 1981, p. 152.
ISBN
3-499-50301-8
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Giffuni, Cathe (1991). "Joseph Roth: An English Bibliography".
Bulletin of Bibliography
.
48
(1): 27?32.
- Michael Hofmann
, trans. and ed.,
Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2012).
- Lazaroms, Ilse Josepha (2013).
The Grace of Misery: Joseph Roth and the Politics of Exile, 1919?1939
. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
ISBN
978-90-0423-4857
.
- Mauthner, Martin (2007).
German Writers in French Exile, 1933?1940
. London: Vallentine Mitchell.
ISBN
978-0-85303-540-4
.
- Pim, Keiron (2022).
Endless Flight: The Life of Joseph Roth
. London: Granta Books.
ISBN
9781783785100
.
- Prang, Christoph (2010). "Semiomimesis: The influence of semiotics on the creation of literary texts. Peter Bichsel's
Ein Tisch ist ein Tisch
and Joseph Roth's
Hotel Savoy
".
Semiotica
.
10
(182): 375?396.
- Snick, Els (2013).
Waar het me slecht gaat is mijn vaderland. Joseph Roth in Nederland en Belgie
. Amsterdam: Bas Lubberhuizen.
ISBN
978-90-5937-3266
.
- Sternburg, Wilhelm von (2010).
Joseph Roth. Eine Biographie
(in German). Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch.
ISBN
978-3-462-04251-1
.
- Alexander Stillmark, (ed.)
Joseph Roth. Der Sieg uber die Zeit
. (1996).
- Weidermann, Volker
(
Carol Brown Janeway
, translator),
Ostend
:
Stefan Zweig
, Joseph Roth, and the Summer Before the Dark
. New York: Pantheon Books, 2016;
Summer Before the Dark: Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, Ostend 1936
. London: Pushkin Press, 2017.
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]
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