Roda Roda

Born Alexander Friedrich Ladislaus Rosenfeld in 1872, he wrote under the pen name Roda Roda and became known as an Austrian writer, journalist, and satirist. He was born in what is now Croatia and spent part of his early career in the Austro-Hungarian Army, an experience that later fed the wit and observation in many of his stories.

Roda Roda built a broad literary career in newspapers, magazines, fiction, and the theater. He was especially admired for humorous writing that mixed satire with vivid scenes from military and provincial life, and his name became closely associated with the lively, ironic spirit of Central European literature in the early 20th century.

Because he was Jewish, he was forced into exile after the rise of Nazism. He eventually made his way to New York, where he died in 1945. Today he is remembered for preserving, with warmth and irony, a vanished world of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.