Curt Riess

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Curt Riess , also Riess-Steinam , originally Curt Martin Steinam , alias Peter Brandes , CR Martin and Martin Amstein (born June 21, 1902 in Würzburg ; † May 13, 1993 in Scheuren, district of Maur , Canton of Zurich ) was a Jewish German writer. Riess had to go into exile in 1933 and in his publications he was very committed against National Socialism.

Life

Curt Riess was the son of Jenny, b. Strauss, and Bernhard Stainam were born. After the death of his father, the stepfather Carl Riess adopted the young Curt in 1912. Riess studied in Munich, Paris and Heidelberg. Riess was also a student of the literary historian Friedrich Gundolf there . During a trip to the USA, Riess discovered his weakness for journalism. He first became a sports journalist and then an editor in the features section of the left-liberal 12 o'clock newspaper in Berlin. In the 1920s Riess reported on trips throughout Europe and as a theater and film critic. In 1933 he emigrated to Paris, in 1934 he became the US correspondent for Paris-Soir and traveled between Paris, London, New York and Hollywood . His reports bought 25 European newspapers and some US papers. In 1941 he settled in Manhattan . He wrote for The Saturday Evening Post and articles for Henry L. Mencken's American Mercury and Collier's Weekly , of which his then-wife was an editor. Riess was friends with Raoul de Roussy de Sales , Thomas Mann and Dorothy Thompson . During this time he dealt intensively with Nazi Germany and wrote a number of books with which he wanted to fight National Socialism. When the USA entered World War II , Riess became a Germany specialist in the United States Navy , and soon afterwards a war correspondent for the US Army. At the end of the war he was in Berchtesgaden .

After an interlude as a correspondent for US newspapers at the Nuremberg Trials , Riess went to Berlin at the end of 1945 and worked as a journalist and freelance writer. It was here that he began work on his Goebbels biography, which was published in New York in 1948. At the end of 1946 Riess went back to New York. At the beginning of 1948 he went back to Berlin as a correspondent for France Soir and was the first to report on the blockade that had just been set up in Berlin . In 1952 he settled in Switzerland and married the Austrian actress Heidemarie Hatheyer .

Riess portrayed important contemporaries in post-war books and articles and wrote, among others, the biographies of Rolf Liebermann , Wilhelm Furtwängler , Gustaf Gründgens , Charles Chaplin and Romy Schneider . He wrote some publications under a pseudonym . For the Star wrote Riess a series of articles on the history of UFA That gave it only once , which was published as a book.

Riess has written many books. The catalog of the German National Library lists 106 titles - with translated editions. He provided the literary template for the 1954 film Roman einer Frauenarzt , and the film Zwischenlandung in Paris was released in cinemas that year. In Hanussen (1955) and The Czardas-König (1958) Riess was involved in the story development.

Riess rests with his wife in the Enzenbühl cemetery (FG 81093) in Zurich. He is the grandfather of the Nobel Prize winner in physics, Adam Riess .

Selection of his works

  • Gottfried Leske, I Was a Nazi Flier . Edited by Curt Riess, The Dial Press, New York 1941.
  • Total espionage . Putnam, New York 1941.
  • The Self-Betrayed, Glory and Doom of the German Generals . GP Putnam's Sons, New York 1942
  • Underground Europe , The Dial Press, New York et al. 1942.
  • The Luftwaffe, its rise and fall . By captain Hermann, with an introd. by Curt Riess, Putnam New York 1943.
  • The invasion of Germany . Putnam, New York 1943.
  • The Nazis go underground . Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY 1944.
  • They were there. The Story of World War II and How it Came About . By America's foremost correspondents. Ed. by Curt Riess, Putnam, New York 1944.
  • The fighting Jew . By Ralph Nunberg , with an introd. by Curt Riess, Putnam, New York 1945.
  • Joseph Goebbels. A biography . Ballantine Books, New York 1948.
  • Stalin died at four in the morning . Uta Verlag, Uelzen 1950.
  • The Berlin Story . Dial Press, New York 1952.
  • Berlin Berlin 1945–1953 . Non-stop library, Berlin 1953. New edition. Bostelmann & Siebenhaar, Berlin 2002 ISBN 3-934189-81-4
  • June 17th . Ullstein, Berlin 1954.
  • It only happened once. The book of the most beautiful films of our lives . Star books, Hamburg 1956.
  • Always practice faithfulness and honesty: a German fate between black and white. White . Roman, Verl. D. Star books, Hamburg 1957.
  • Bestsellers - books that millions read , Christian Wegner, Hamburg 1960.
  • To be or not to be. Novel of a theater . (About the Schauspielhaus Zürich ), Fachschriften, Zürich 1963.
  • Gottlieb Duttweiler - A biography . Wegner Hamburg + Verlag Die Arche Zürich, 1959. New edition Europa Verlag, Zürich 2011, ISBN 978-3-905811-32-2 .
  • Ascona - history of the strangest village in the world . Europa, Zurich 1964. Many other editions, new edition with contributions by Esther Scheidegger, Europa, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-905811-34-6 .
  • Gustaf Gründgens - A biography . Using previously unpublished Documents from the estate. Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1965
  • The Man in the Black Robe: The Life of Defense Lawyer Max Alsberg . Wegner, Hamburg 1965
  • Knaur's world history of the record . Droemersche Publishing House, Zurich / Munich 1966.
  • Erotica! Erotica! The book of forbidden books . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1967.
  • Lonely in front of millions of eyes - great athletes and their fate , Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1970.
  • Café Odeon: Our time, its main actors and viewers . Europa, Zurich 1973, ISBN 3-85665-501-8 , new edition: with a text by Esther Scheidegger, Europa, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-905811-24-7 .
  • My famous friends - memories. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1987.
  • Those were the days - a nostalgic autobiography with many contributors . Molden, Vienna a. a. 1977, ISBN 3-217-00845-6 , expanded new edition under the title: That was a life! Memories . Langen-Müller, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7844-2117-2 . Then as Ullstein-TB 34669, Frankfurt a. M. 1990, ISBN 3-548-34669-3 with further editions.
  • The woman with the hundred faces - Requiem for Heidemarie Hatheyer . Droste, Düsseldorf 1991, ISBN 3-7700-0955-X . (A biography of the HH)
  • Processes that moved our world. Droste, Düsseldorf 1992, ISBN 3-7700-0964-9 , as a new edition: Area, Erftstadt 2004, ISBN 3-89996-185-4 .

literature

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Time, Monday, Dec. 01, 1941
  2. ↑ https://content.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,795462,00.html Time July 28, 1941
personal data
SURNAME Riess, Curt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brandes, Peter (pseudonym); Martin, CR (pseudonym); Amstein, Martin (pseudonym); Riess Steinam, Curt (real name); Steinam, Curt Martin (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1993
Place of death Scheuren, district of Maur , Canton of Zurich