author
Franz Werfel
1890–1945
A major voice of 20th-century German-language literature, he wrote with urgency about faith, persecution, and the dignity of ordinary people. Best known today for The Forty Days of Musa Dagh and The Song of Bernadette, his work moved between poetry, drama, and sweeping historical fiction.
4 Audiobooks
Gesänge aus den drei Reichen: Ausgewählte Gedichte
by Franz Werfel
Nicht der Mörder, der Ermordete ist schuldig: Eine Novelle
by Franz Werfel
Kuoleman voittaja
by Franz Werfel
About the author
Born in Prague on September 10, 1890, Franz Werfel became one of the notable German-language writers of his era. He was associated with Expressionism and built a wide-ranging career as a poet, playwright, and novelist, writing across the turbulent years of World War I, the interwar period, and World War II.
His best-known books include The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, a novel based on the resistance of Armenians during the genocide of 1915, and The Song of Bernadette, which brought him a wide international readership. His writing often returned to questions of conscience, spiritual belief, suffering, and human solidarity.
Werfel's life was deeply shaped by exile. His books were among those targeted by the Nazis, and he eventually fled Europe, later settling in the United States. He died in Beverly Hills, California, on August 26, 1945, leaving behind a body of work remembered for its moral seriousness and emotional reach.