List of authors banned during the Third Reich
Encyclopedia
These authors are from the prohibitions lists during the Nazi Third Reich and come from the following lists and others:
The official list was published by the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda
. Authors, living and dead, were placed on the list because of Jewish
descent, or because of pacifist
or communist
sympathies or suspicion thereof.
In May and June 1933, in the first year of the Nazi government, there were book burning
s. These book bans compose a part of the history of censorship
and a subset of the list of banned books.
After World War II
started, Germans created indexes of prohibited books in countries they occupied, of works in languages other than German. For example, in occupied Poland, an index of 1,500 prohibited authors was created.
- List of damaging and undesirable writing, Liste des schädlichen und unerwünschten Schrifttums, December 31, 1938
- Jahreslisten 1939-1941. Unchanged new printing of the Leipzig edition, 1938-1941, Vaduz 1979
The official list was published by the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda
Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was Nazi Germany's ministry that enforced Nazi Party ideology in Germany and regulated its culture and society. Founded on March 13, 1933, by Adolf Hitler's new National Socialist government, the Ministry was headed by Dr...
. Authors, living and dead, were placed on the list because of Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
descent, or because of pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
or communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
sympathies or suspicion thereof.
In May and June 1933, in the first year of the Nazi government, there were book burning
Book burning
Book burning, biblioclasm or libricide is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded...
s. These book bans compose a part of the history of censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and a subset of the list of banned books.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
started, Germans created indexes of prohibited books in countries they occupied, of works in languages other than German. For example, in occupied Poland, an index of 1,500 prohibited authors was created.
A
- Alfred AdlerAlfred AdlerAlfred Adler was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. In collaboration with Sigmund Freud and a small group of Freud's colleagues, Adler was among the co-founders of the psychoanalytic movement as a core member of the Vienna...
- Hermann AdlerHermann AdlerRabbi Hermann Adler CVO was the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1891 to 1911. The son of Nathan Marcus Adler, the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica writes that he "raised the position [of Chief Rabbi] to one of much dignity and importance."Born in Hanover, like his father, he had both a...
- Max Adler
- Raoul AuernheimerRaoul AuernheimerRaoul Auernheimer was an Austrian jurist and writer.Auernheimer was the son of German businessman Johann Wilhelm Auernheimer and his Hungarian wife Charlotte "Jenny" Büchler. After receiving his Abitur, Auernheimer began to study law at the university in his hometown...
B
- Otto BauerOtto BauerOtto Bauer was an Austrian Social Democrat who is considered one of the leading thinkers of the left socialist Austro-Marxist tendency...
- Vicki BaumVicki BaumHedwig Baum was an Austrian writer. She is known for Menschen im Hotel , one of her first international successes....
- Johannes R. BecherJohannes R. BecherJohannes Robert Becher was a German politician, novelist, and poet.-Early life:Johannes R. Becher was the son of Judge Heinrich Becher. In 1910 he tried to commit suicide with a friend; only Becher survived. From 1911 he studied medicine and philosophy in Munich and Jena...
- Richard Beer-HofmannRichard Beer-HofmannRichard Beer-Hofmann was an Austrian dramatist and poet.After the early death of his mother, Beer-Hofmann was raised by his aunt's family in Brno and Vienna. In the 1880s he studied law in Vienna, receiving his doctorate in 1890...
- Walter BenjaminWalter BenjaminWalter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
- Walter A. Berendsohn
- Ernst Bloch
- Felix BraunFelix BraunFelix Braun was an Austrian writer.-Life:Braun was born in Vienna to a Jewish family. His mother died in 1888 during the birth of his sister, Käthe, who would also become a famous writer...
- Bertolt BrechtBertolt BrechtBertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
- Willi BredelWilli BredelWilli Bredel was a German writer and president of the Akademie der Künste. Born in Hamburg, he was a pioneer of socialist realist literature....
- Hermann BrochHermann BrochHermann Broch was a 20th century Austrian writer, considered one of the major Modernists.-Life:Broch was born in Vienna to a prosperous Jewish family and worked for some time in his family's factory, though he maintained his literary interests privately...
- Ferdinand BrucknerFerdinand BrucknerFerdinand Bruckner was an Austrian-German writer and theater manager.-Life:...
F
- Lion FeuchtwangerLion FeuchtwangerLion Feuchtwanger was a German-Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht....
- Marieluise FleißerMarieluise FleißerMarieluise Fleißer was a German author and playwright.Her best known works are two plays, Purgatory in Ingolstadt and Pioneers in Ingolstadt . Bertolt Brecht persuaded the director Moriz Seeler to stage the first play, which Seeler retitled; Fleißer's original title was The Washing of Feet....
- Leonhard FrankLeonhard FrankLeonhard Frank was a German expressionist writer. He studied painting and graphic art in Munich, and gained acclaim with his first novel, The Robber Band...
- Anna FreudAnna FreudAnna Freud was the sixth and last child of Sigmund and Martha Freud. Born in Vienna, she followed the path of her father and contributed to the newly born field of psychoanalysis...
- Sigmund FreudSigmund FreudSigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
- Egon FriedellEgon FriedellEgon Friedell born Egon Friedmann, 21 January 1878, in Vienna, died 16 March 1938, in Vienna, was a prominent Austrian philosopher, historian, journalist, actor, cabaret performer and theatre critic.- Early life :...
H
- Jaroslav HašekJaroslav HašekJaroslav Hašek was a Czech humorist, satirist, writer and socialist anarchist best known for his novel The Good Soldier Švejk, an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I and a satire on the ineptitude of authority figures, which has been translated into sixty...
- Walter HasencleverWalter HasencleverWalter Hasenclever was a German Expressionist poet and playwright.-Biography:...
- Raoul HausmannRaoul HausmannRaoul Hausmann was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada, his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on the European Avant-Garde in the aftermath of World War I.-Early biography:Raoul Hausmann was...
- Magnus HirschfeldMagnus HirschfeldMagnus Hirschfeld was a German physician and sexologist. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, which Dustin Goltz called "the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights."-Early life:Hirschfeld was born in Kolberg in a...
- Jakob van HoddisJakob van HoddisJakob van Hoddis was the pen name of a German-Jewish expressionist poet Hans Davidsohn, of which name "Van Hoddis" is an anagram...
- Ödön von HorvathÖdön von HorváthEdmund Josef von Horváth was a German-writing Austro-Hungarian-born playwright and novelist...
- Karl HubbuchKarl HubbuchKarl Hubbuch was a German painter, printmaker, and draftsman associated with the New Objectivity.Hubbuch was born in Karlsruhe. From 1908 to 1912, he studied art at the Karlsruhe Academy, where he formed friendships with fellow students Georg Scholz and Rudolf Schlichter...
K
- Erich KästnerErich KästnerEmil Erich Kästner was a German author, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known for his humorous, socially astute poetry and children's literature.-Dresden 1899–1919:...
- Franz KafkaFranz KafkaFranz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
- Georg KaiserGeorg KaiserFriedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, was a German dramatist.-Biography:Kaiser was born at Magdeburg....
- Mascha KalekoMascha KalékoMascha Kaléko, born Golda Malka Aufen on June 7, 1907 in Chrzanów, Austria ; died January 21, 1975 in Zürich) was a Jewish German language poet.- Biography :Her family moved from Galicia to Germany after World War I....
- Hermann KantorowiczHermann KantorowiczHermann Kantorowicz was a distinguished German jurist.He was a professor at Freiburg University , Visiting Professor, Columbia University...
- Karl KautskyKarl KautskyKarl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 until the coming of World War I in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of...
- Hans Kelsen
- Alfred KerrAlfred KerrAlfred Kerr , born Alfred Kempner, was an influential German-Jewish theatre critic and essayist, nicknamed the Kulturpapst ....
- Irmgard KeunIrmgard KeunIrmgard Keun was a German author noteworthy both for her portrayals of life in the Weimar Republic as well as the early years of the Nazi Germany era.-Biography:...
- KlabundKlabundAlfred Henschke , better known by his pseudonym Klabund, was a German writer.-Life:Klabund, born Alfred Henschke in 1890 in Krossen, was the son of an apothecary. At the age of 16 he came down with tuberculosis, which the doctors initially misdiagnosed as pneumonia...
- Annette KolbAnnette KolbAnnette Kolb was the working name of German author and pacifist Anna Mathilde Kolb. She became active in pacifist causes during World War I and this caused her political difficulties from then on. She left Germany in the 1920s and her works were banned during the Third Reich...
- Paul KornfeldPaul Kornfeld (playwright)Paul Kornfeld was a Czech-born German-language Jewish writer whose expressionist plays and scholarly treatises on the theory of drama earned him a specialized niche in influencing contemporary intellectual discourse....
- Siegfried KracauerSiegfried KracauerSiegfried Kracauer was a German-Jewish writer, journalist, sociologist, cultural critic, and film theorist...
- Karl KrausKarl KrausKarl Kraus was an Austrian writer and journalist, known as a satirist, essayist, aphorist, playwright and poet. He is regarded as one of the foremost German-language satirists of the 20th century, especially for his witty criticism of the press, German culture, and German and Austrian...
- Adam KuckhoffAdam KuckhoffAdam Kuckhoff was a German writer, journalist, and resistance fighter in the Third Reich....
L
- Else Lasker-SchülerElse Lasker-SchülerElse Lasker-Schüler was a Jewish German poet and playwright famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Berlin. She was one of the few women affiliated with the Expressionist movement. Lasker-Schüler fled Nazi Germany and lived out the rest of her life in Jerusalem.-Biography:Schüler was born in...
- Vladimir LeninVladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
- Jack LondonJack LondonJohn Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
- Ernst LotharErnst LotharErnst Lothar was a Moravian-Austrian writer, theatre director/manager and producer.He was born Ernst Lothar Müller, and as Müller is common German surname, he dropped it. His brother, Hans Müller-Einigen, went the other way and added a surname.-Biography:...
- Emil LudwigEmil LudwigEmil Ludwig was a German author, known for his biographies.-Biography:Emil Ludwig was born in Breslau, now part of Poland. Ludwig studied law but chose writing as a career. At first he wrote plays and novella, but also worked as a journalist...
- Rosa LuxemburgRosa LuxemburgRosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
M
- André MalrauxAndré MalrauxAndré Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...
- Heinrich MannHeinrich MannLuiz Heinrich Mann was a German novelist who wrote works with strong social themes. His attacks on the authoritarian and increasingly militaristic nature of pre-World War II German society led to his exile in 1933.-Life and work:Born in Lübeck as the oldest child of Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann...
- Klaus MannKlaus Mann- Life and work :Born in Munich, Klaus Mann was the son of German writer Thomas Mann and his wife, Katia Pringsheim. His father was baptized as a Lutheran, while his mother was from a family of secular Jews. He began writing short stories in 1924 and the following year became drama critic for a...
- Thomas MannThomas MannThomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
- Hans MarchwitzaHans MarchwitzaHans Marchwitza was a German writer, proletarian poet, and communist.- Life :Marchwitza was the son of miner Thomas Marchwitza and his wife Thekla Maxisch, and was born in Scharley near Beuthen in Upper Silesia. Already at fourteen years old Marchwitza was working underground in the mines...
- Ludwig MarcuseLudwig MarcuseProfessor Ludwig Marcuse , was a philosopher and writer of Jewish origin....
- Karl MarxKarl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
- Walter MehringWalter MehringWalter Mehring was a German author and one of the most prominent satirical authors in the Weimar Republic. He was banned during the Third Reich, and fled the country.-Biographical:...
- Gustav MeyrinkGustav MeyrinkGustav Meyrink was the pseudonym of Gustav Meyer, an Austrian author, storyteller, dramatist, translator, and banker, most famous for his novel The Golem.-Childhood:...
- Erich MühsamErich MühsamErich Mühsam was a German-Jewish anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic....
- Robert MusilRobert MusilRobert Musil was an Austrian writer. His unfinished long novel The Man Without Qualities is generally considered to be one of the most important modernist novels...
R
- Fritz Reck-MalleczewenFritz Reck-MalleczewenFriedrich Percival Reck-Malleczewen was a German author.Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen was born on the estate of Malleczewen, Masuria ,the son of the Prussian Politician and landowner Hermann Reck. He originally wanted to be a musician, and at one point studied medicine in Innsbruck...
- Gustav ReglerGustav ReglerGustav Regler - was a German Socialist novelist. He served in the Germany Infantry during the First World War, and was seriosuly injured; he joined the Communist Party, and spent time in the USSR. He later served as political commissar of the XII International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War...
- Wilhelm ReichWilhelm ReichWilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
- Erich Maria RemarqueErich Maria RemarqueErich Maria Remarque was a German author, best known for his novel All Quiet on the Western Front.-Life and work:...
- Karl RennerKarl RennerKarl Renner was an Austrian politician. He was born in Untertannowitz in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and died in Vienna...
- Joachim RingelnatzJoachim RingelnatzJoachim Ringelnatz is the pen name of the German author and painter Hans Bötticher. His pen name Ringelnatz is usually explained as a dialect expression for an animal, possibly a variant of Ringelnatter, German for Grass Snake...
- Joseph RothJoseph RothJoseph Roth, born Moses Joseph Roth , was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga Radetzky March about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and for his novel of Jewish life, Job as well as the seminal essay 'Juden auf Wanderschaft' translated in...
S
- Nelly SachsNelly SachsNelly Sachs was a Jewish German poet and playwright whose experiences resulting from the rise of the Nazis in World War II Europe transformed her into a poignant spokeswoman for the grief and yearnings of her fellow Jews...
- Felix SaltenFelix SaltenFelix Salten was an Austrian author and critic in Vienna. His most famous work is Bambi .-Life:...
- Rahel SanzaraRahel SanzaraRahel Sanzara was a German dancer, actress and novelist.- Biography :...
- Arthur SchnitzlerArthur SchnitzlerDr. Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist.- Biography :Arthur Schnitzler, son of a prominent Hungarian-Jewish laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter , was born in Praterstraße 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian...
- Alvin Schwartz
- Anna SeghersAnna SeghersAnna Seghers was a German writer famous for depicting the moral experience of the Second World War.- Life :...
- Walter SernerWalter SernerWalter Serner was a German-language writer and essayist. His manifesto Letzte Lockerung was an important text of Dadaism....
- Ignazio SiloneIgnazio SiloneIgnazio Silone was the pseudonym of Secondino Tranquilli, an Italian author and politician.-Early life and career:...
- Rudolf SteinerRudolf SteinerRudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...
- Carl SternheimCarl SternheimCarl Sternheim was a German playwright and short story writer. One of the major exponents of German Expressionism, he especially satirized the moral sensibilities of the emerging German middle class during the Wilhelmine period.-Biography:Born in Leipzig to a Jewish banker and his Protestant wife...
T
- Ernst TollerErnst TollerErnst Toller was a left-wing German playwright, best known for his Expressionist plays and serving as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, for six days.- Biography :...
- Friedrich TorbergFriedrich TorbergFriedrich Torberg is the pen-name of Friedrich Kantor, an Austrian writer.- Biography :...
- B. TravenB. TravenB. Traven was the pen name of a German novelist, whose real name, nationality, date and place of birth and details of biography are all subject to dispute. A rare certainty is that B...
- Leon TrotskyLeon TrotskyLeon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
- Kurt TucholskyKurt TucholskyKurt Tucholsky was a German-Jewish journalist, satirist and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser, Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Born in Berlin-Moabit, he moved to Paris in 1924 and then to Sweden in 1930.Tucholsky was one of the most important journalists of...
W
- Jakob WassermannJakob WassermannJakob Wassermann was a Jewish-German writer and novelist.- Life :Born in Fürth, Wassermann was the son of a shopkeeper and lost his mother at an early age. He showed literary interest early and published various pieces in small newspapers...
- Armin T. WegnerArmin T. WegnerArmin Theophil Wegner was a German soldier and medic in World War I, a prolific author and a seminal figure in German Expressionism, a human rights activist, and a victim of Nazi persecution...
- Franz WerfelFranz WerfelFranz Werfel was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet.- Biography :Born in Prague , Werfel was the first of three children of a wealthy manufacturer of gloves and leather goods. His mother, Albine Kussi, was the daughter of a mill owner...
- Eugen Gottlob WinklerEugen Gottlob WinklerEugen Gottlob Winkler was a German writer and essayist.He grew up in Stuttgart and studied Germanistics, Romantic philology and art history at Munich, Paris, Tübingen and Cologne....
- Friedrich Wolf