Gustav Regler (25 May 1898 – 14 January 1963) was a German writer and journalist.

Background

Gustav Regler was born on 25 May 1898 in Merzig, in the

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

Rhine Province The Rhine Province (), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. ...

(now

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

Career

Regler served in the German Infantry during the First World War and was seriously injured. He joined the Communist Party and spent time in the USSR. He later served as political commissar of the

XII International Brigade The XII International Brigade was mustered on 7 November 1936 at Albacete, Spain. It was formerly named the Garibaldi Brigade, after the most famous and inspiring leader in the Italian Independence Wars, General Giuseppe Garibaldi. Structure Its ...

during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. Whilst in Spain he befriended

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

and was wounded at the Battle of Guadalajara. As a Communist, he was long-time friend of

Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler (, ; ; ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler j ...

, first in Berlin, then Paris and during the Spanish Civil War. Regler's books were banned in the Third Reich. While in Spain, he wrote articles as a special correspondent for the '' Deutsche Zentral Zeitung''. He accompanied

Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, Prose, prose writer, Memoir, memoirist, and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway as well as her communist views and political activism. She was black ...

on a visit to a Benicàssim hospital in October 1937.

Works

Regler wrote about his Spanish experiences in his novel ''Das große Beispiel'' he great example translated as ''The Great Crusade'' (New York, 1940), introduced by

, translated by Whittaker Chambers. His memoirs were published as ''The Owl of Minerva'' in London in 1959. ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine called him the German " Malraux."

Personal life and death

Regler eventually broke with the Soviet Communist Party and took refuge in Mexico where he lived the last years of his life in Tepoztlán with his second wife Margaret (Peggy). He died while traveling in India to receive a prize at age 69 and his body was burned on the ghats of the Benares river.

References

Sources

* Hugh Thomas ''The Spanish Civil War'' 2003. 4th Rev ed. *Gustav Regler, ''The Owl of Minerva'', Hart-Davis, London, 1959. *"A Ghost Walks," ''

'', March 7, 1960 (review of ''The Owl of Minerva'')

External links

1898 births 1963 deaths People from Merzig-Wadern Writers from the Rhine Province Communist Party of Germany members Writers from Saarland German male writers German Army personnel of World War I International Brigades personnel German people of the Spanish Civil War {{spain-hist-stub