Stefan Brockhoff was a
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...
used collectively by a group of three
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
co-authors:
Dieter Cunz,
Richard Plant, and
Oskar Seidlin
Oskar Seidlin (February 17, 1911 – December 11, 1984) was a Jewish emigre from Nazi Germany first to Switzerland and then to the U.S. He taught German language and literature as a professor at Smith College, Middlebury College, Ohio State Un ...
.
As Stefan Brockhoff, they wrote multiple highly successful
detective novels
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal investigation, investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around ...
, three published in
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
and at least one published in
postwar Germany.
Authors
Cunz, Plant, and Seidlin were each born in Germany at or about the beginning of the second decade of the twentieth century. At one point or another they all of them became refugees from
Nazism
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
. They all eventually lived out their lives in the United States of America. For each of them, the writing of detective novels was a youthful
avocation
An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces w ...
; their principal interests and activities in later life lay in different areas.
Novels
* Stefan Brockhoff, ''Schuß auf die Bühne (Shot on Stage)'' (Leipzig, Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, 1935)
* Stefan Brockhoff, ''Musik im Totengässlein (Music in Totengässlein)'' (Bern, etc., Goldmann, 1936)
* Stefan Brockhoff, ''Drei Kioske am See (Three Kiosks by the Lake)'' (Leipzig, Goldmann, 1937)
* Stefan Brockhoff, ''Begegnung in Zermatt (Encounter in Zermatt)'' (Munich, Goldmann, 1955)
A fifth novel, entitled ''Verwirrung um Veronika'', is said to have been serialized in the ''Zürcher Illustrierte'' in 1938. Cf. Angelika Jockers and Reinhard Jahn, eds., ''Lexikon der deutschsprachigen Krimi-Autoren'' (2nd ed., rev.; Munich, Verlag der Criminale, 2005). This attribution has not been independently corroborated.
References
Collective pseudonyms
Fictional German people
German male writers
Trios
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