Arthur Holitscher (22 August 1869 – 14 October 1941) was a Hungarian

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

ist and writer on traveling. Born into an upper middle-class Jewish merchant family in

Pest, Hungary Pest () is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the eastern bank of the Danube. Pest was administratively unified with Buda and Óbuda in 1873; prior to this, it was an independent city. In colloquial Hungarian langua ...

, he began his career working for a bank for six years. His career as a writer began in Germany in the mid-1890s.

Political involvement with Soviet Russia

In September 1917, Holitscher attended the Third Zimmerwald Conference held in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

in the capacity of a correspondent for the Viennese paper '' Neuen Freien Presse''. He was also involved with the pacifist organisation Bund Neues Vaterland (New Fatherland Confederation) and was active as a socialist. In September 1919 Holitscher was invited to meet with

Karl Radek Karl Berngardovich Radek (; 31 October 1885 – 19 May 1939) was a revolutionary and writer active in the Polish and German social democratic movements before World War I and a Communist International leader in the Soviet Union after the Russian ...

at Moabit prison to discuss joining a commission to visit Russia. The proposed commission consisted of experts in agriculture, industry, a former Secretary of State as a specialist in administration, a representative of the Radical Workers of Berlin, and the Chief of Police of a large Swiss city. The German authorities were prepared to sanction this, however they decided to send Radek back to Russia in January 1920 and the proposed commission was shelved. Nevertheless, Holitscher was to take a trip to Russia separately departing for three months in September 1920. This led to the publication of ''Drei Monate in Sowjet-Russland'' (Three months in Soviet Russia) in 1921.

First Russian Art Exhibition

In 1922 he contributed to the foreword to the catalogue for the First Russian Art Exhibition held in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Later life

He died in Geneva in 1941.

Works

* ''Drei Monate in Sowjet-Russland'' (Three months in Soviet Russia), Berlin 1921. * ''Wiedersehen mit Amerika; die Verwandlung der U.S.A.'' (1930) Berlin: S. Fischer

Articles in
Die Aktion ''Die Aktion'' ("The Action") was a German literary and political magazine, edited by Franz Pfemfert and published between 1911 and 1932 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf; it promoted literary Expressionism and stood for left-wing politics. To begin with, ' ...

(See

Die Aktion ''Die Aktion'' ("The Action") was a German literary and political magazine, edited by Franz Pfemfert and published between 1911 and 1932 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf; it promoted literary Expressionism and stood for left-wing politics. To begin with, ' ...

index) * "Amerikas Literatur", No. 28, 11 July 1914 * "Scham und Läuterung", No. 27/28, 8 July 1916 * "Die Litanei von Atlanta." (translation of material by

W. E. B. Dubois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relative ...

), No. 21/22, 19 May 1917 * "Nadja Strasser: Die Russin", No. 24/25, 16 June 1917 * "Gesang an die Lider", No. 23/24, 15 June 1918 * " Aufruhr", No. 8/9, 1 March 1919

References

External links

* 1869 births 1941 deaths Hungarian male dramatists and playwrights Hungarian male novelists 20th-century Hungarian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Hungarian novelists 20th-century Hungarian male writers Theatre people from Budapest {{hungary-writer-stub