János Székely (writer)

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János Székely , always working in Germany as Hans Szekely , (* July 7, 1901 in Budapest , † December 16, 1958 in East Berlin ) was a Hungarian writer and screenwriter . He published some of his books under the pseudonym John Pen.

Life

After the First World War, at the age of 18, he fled the Horthy regime from Hungary to Germany. In Berlin he wrote numerous scripts for silent film stars such as Brigitte Helm , Willy Fritsch , Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings . In 1934 Ernst Lubitsch invited him to work in Hollywood . In 1938 Székely finally emigrated to the United States and became a sought-after screenwriter for silent and sound films . In 1940 he was awarded an Oscar for the book based on the film Arise, my Love .

In the McCarthy era he left the United States, moved to Mexico and in 1957 to East Berlin to work with DEFA .

His best- known work is his autobiographically inspired novel Kisértés (Temptation) . It appeared in numerous countries in the 1950s, was later forgotten and was rediscovered in 2000. In 2006, his novel Der arme Swoboda, written in English in American exile, was published in a German translation.

His daughter Kati Székely is an actress.

Novels

  • 1940: Poor Swoboda (You can't do that to Svoboda) ; translated by Leon Scholsky
  • 1949: Temptation (Kísértés ); translated by Ita Szent-Iványi

Scripts

literature

  • Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than is given ..." Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. Acabus-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, p. 495 f. ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Székely, János
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Székely, Hans; Pen, John (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian-German-American writer and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1958
Place of death East Berlin