author
Leo Lania
1896–1961
A restless, politically engaged writer, he moved through journalism, theater, and film while crossing borders and upheavals in 20th-century Europe and America. His life and work capture the energy of exile, protest, and sharp-eyed reporting.
1 Audiobook
Der Hitler-Ludendorff-Prozeß
by Leo Lania
About the author
Born Lazar Herrmann in Kharkov in 1896, Leo Lania became a journalist, playwright, and screenwriter who wrote mainly in German. He later lived in Vienna, served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War, and went on to build a career shaped by left-wing politics and political theater.
Lania worked in the lively cultural world of the Weimar era and is especially remembered for his screenwriting, including work connected with G. W. Pabst's 1931 film The Threepenny Opera. As fascism spread, exile became part of his story, and archives of his papers describe a career that stretched across Europe and the United States, with journalism remaining central to his work.
He died in Munich in 1961. Though not as widely known today as some of his contemporaries, his writing stands at the crossroads of literature, film, and 20th-century political history.