author
Leo Lania
1896–1961
A sharp-eyed journalist, playwright, and screenwriter, he moved through the upheavals of early 20th-century Europe and turned politics, war, and modern city life into vivid writing. His career stretched from Vienna and Weimar-era Germany to exile in France and the United States, with work that reached both the stage and the screen.
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 whose life crossed several countries and political eras. He grew up in Vienna, served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War, and later became closely involved with left-wing journalism and political theater.
During the Weimar years, he worked in Germany and built a reputation for writing that was engaged with the social realities of the time. He is especially remembered for his screen work, including his contribution to G. W. Pabst's 1931 film The Threepenny Opera. Sources also describe him as a writer driven to look "behind the scenes of reality," a phrase used to sum up his lifelong interest in exposing the forces beneath public events.
After the Nazi rise to power, Lania was forced into exile. He lived in France, later made his way to the United States during the Second World War, and eventually settled in Munich, where he died in 1961. Today, he is often remembered as a restless, politically engaged writer whose work linked reportage, theater, and film.