Leo Matthias

Born in Berlin in 1893, he studied law, economics, and sociology in Berlin, Munich, Geneva, and Paris. In the years after World War I, he worked as a freelance writer and contributed to major German literary magazines, while also traveling through places including the Middle East, Persia, India, Mexico, and Russia.

He left Germany in 1933 and spent many years abroad, working as a civil servant and professor of sociology in Latin America and the United States. After returning to Europe in 1951, he continued to travel and write, including a trip to China in 1954–55.

He published fiction, plays, travel writing, and political nonfiction, sometimes under the name L. L. Matthias. One of his best-known books, Die Kehrseite der USA, offered a critical view of American society and helped make him a notable voice in postwar German-language nonfiction. He died in Ascona, Switzerland, in 1970.