Paul Leppin

Born in Prague in 1878, Paul Leppin was a German-language Bohemian writer whose life and work were closely tied to the city. He is remembered for fiction and poetry shaped by fin-de-siècle decadence, and for evoking Prague as a place of mystery, desire, and melancholy.

Though he wrote in German, he remained closely connected to Czech literary culture. He translated Czech books, wrote about Czech literature, and also worked as an editor of literary periodicals, helping bridge the city’s overlapping cultural worlds.

Leppin spent much of his working life as a postal official while writing on the side. He died in Prague in 1945, and his reputation has endured through readers drawn to the darker, more feverish side of Central European literature.