Lion Feuchtwanger

Born in Munich in 1884, Lion Feuchtwanger became a German Jewish novelist and playwright known especially for historical fiction. He studied literature and related subjects in Munich and Berlin, and by the 1920s he was widely read in Germany.

Feuchtwanger is best remembered for novels such as Jud Suss, The Ugly Duchess, and the Josephus trilogy. His work often used the past to explore power, intolerance, exile, and the pressures placed on outsiders, giving his stories both sweep and sharp political meaning.

Because he criticized Hitler and the Nazi movement early on, his books were banned and burned after the Nazis took power. He fled Germany, later settled in the United States, and continued writing in exile until his death in 1958.