author
Hugo Ganz
1862–1922
A sharp-eyed journalist and literary writer, he reported from Budapest, Vienna, and St. Petersburg at a time when Europe was changing fast. His books and dispatches brought politics, culture, and everyday life together in a way that still feels vivid.
1 Audiobook
The Land of Riddles (Russia of To-day)
by Hugo Ganz
About the author
Born in Mainz in 1862, Hugo Ganz studied history and philology at the universities of Leipzig and Giessen and earned his doctorate in 1884. He began his career as a secondary-school teacher before moving into journalism and literary writing.
Ganz worked for major German-language newspapers including the Frankfurter Zeitung, the Pester Lloyd, the Neue Freie Presse, Die Zeit, and later the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. He lived and worked in Budapest and Vienna, and his Vienna home became a meeting place for public figures, scientists, and artists.
He is especially remembered for politically engaged books such as Der Rebell and Vor der Katastrophe—later translated into English as The Land of Riddles (Russia of To-day)—drawn from his reporting in the Russian Empire during the Russo-Japanese War. He died in Vienna in 1922.