author
Berthold Viertel
1885–1953
A restless talent who moved between poetry, theater, and film, he built a career across Vienna, Berlin, London, and Hollywood. His work in exile and his wide-ranging artistic life make him a fascinating figure of 20th-century European culture.
1 Audiobook
Die Spur
by Berthold Viertel
About the author
Born in Vienna in 1885, Berthold Viertel was an Austrian writer, screenwriter, and film director whose career stretched across several countries and artistic forms. He first became known as a poet and essayist, and he also worked in the theater before making a name in film.
His life and work were shaped by movement: after early work in Vienna, he was active in German theater, later worked in Britain and the United States, and became especially associated with the cultural world of exile in the 1930s and 1940s. He is often remembered not only for directing films, but for the way he connected literature, stage work, and cinema.
Viertel died in Vienna in 1953. Today he stands out as a cosmopolitan creative figure whose career reflects both the richness and the upheaval of European artistic life in the first half of the 20th century.