Franz Werfel

Lore & Background

Franz Werfel was born in Prague, the first of three children of a wealthy Jewish glove manufacturer. Raised by a Czech Catholic governess who took him to mass, and educated at a Catholic school, he developed an early interest in Catholicism and other faiths, including Theosophy and Islam. He began writing early, publishing his first book of poems, Der Weltfreund, in 1911, and befriended writers such as Max Brod and Franz Kafka in Prague's Café Arco. During World War I, he served in the Austro-Hungarian Army as a telephone operator on the Russian front, continuing to write expressionist poems and plays. In 1917, he was transferred to the Military Press Bureau in Vienna, where he met Alma Mahler, whom he later married in 1929 after a complex relationship involving her previous marriages.

Reader's Guide

Franz Werfel's significance lies in his ability to blend humanist, confessional, and religious themes across poetry, drama, and fiction, addressing historical atrocities and spiritual experiences. His novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh brought international attention to the Armenian genocide, while The Song of Bernadette, written after his escape from Nazi-occupied France, became a bestseller and a Hollywood film. His work reflects a lifelong engagement with comparative religion, influenced by his Catholic upbringing, Jewish heritage, and encounters with Theosophy, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith. Despite alienating some Jewish friends and critics due to his Christian sympathies and antipathy for Zionism, he maintained support from figures like Martin Buber. His legacy includes being a prominent German-language writer of the early 20th century, whose works were banned and burned by the Nazis, and who later became part of the émigré community in Los Angeles. His posthumous novel Star of the Unborn and his play Jacobowsky and the Colonel, adapted into film and opera, continue to be studied for their exploration of exile, faith, and history.

Did You Know?

• Werfel's governess, Barbara Šimůnková, often took him to mass in Prague's main cathedral.
• He participated in séances with his friends Max Brod and Franz Kafka.
• His novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh was denounced by the Nazi newspaper Das Schwarze Korps as propaganda of 'alleged Turkish horrors'.
• He and his wife Alma Mahler escaped Nazi-occupied France by crossing the Pyrenees on foot, aided by Varian Fry.