Iwan Heilbut

Born in Hamburg in 1898, Iwan Heilbut became a German writer, poet, journalist, and publicist. He lived in Berlin in the 1920s and wrote for major newspapers including the Vossische Zeitung and the Berliner Tageblatt.

After the Nazis came to power, he was briefly arrested and his manuscripts were confiscated. He fled Germany in 1933, went into exile in France by way of Czechoslovakia, and later escaped to the United States. His novel Birds of Passage grew out of these experiences and reflects the uncertainty and upheaval faced by refugees in Europe during that period.

Heilbut returned to Europe after the war and died in Bonn in 1972. Though he was largely forgotten for many years, recent reissues and literary interest have brought fresh attention to his writing and to the remarkable life behind it.