Bernhard Kellermann

Born in Fürth on March 4, 1879, he first studied in Munich and was drawn to both literature and painting before turning fully to writing. He began publishing fiction in the early 1900s and quickly built a reputation with novels such as Yester und Li, Ingeborg, and Das Meer.

His international breakthrough came with Der Tunnel (1913), a visionary bestseller about building a tunnel between Europe and North America. The novel helped define his public image as a writer fascinated by modern technology, ambition, and the scale of the new century.

Kellermann remained a prominent figure in German literary life for decades, though his career also passed through the political upheavals of the first half of the 20th century. He died near Potsdam on October 17, 1951.