Norbert Mühlen

Norbert Mühlen , also Norbert Muhlen or Norbert Muehlen (born September 20, 1909 as Kurt Stefan Baer in Fürth ; † August 20, 1981 in Manhattan ) was a resistance fighter against National Socialism and a German-American publicist.

Life

After finishing school, Mühlen studied political science at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . There he was awarded a Dr. oec. publ. PhD . Mühlen was a leader in anti-fascist student groups. He worked for publications of the Ullstein Verlag as a freelancer and also published under a pseudonym .

In May 1933, shortly after power was handed over to the National Socialists , he fled from Munich to Switzerland and lived in Zurich . In 1934 he went to the Saar area . There he worked with Fritz Heymann and Siegfried Thalheimer for the anti-Nazi exile magazine Westland (later Grenzland ). After the annexation of the Saar region to the German Reich , he turned to Paris in 1935 . There, Mühlen and other intellectuals such as Leopold Schwarzschild , Alfred Döblin , Hermann Kesten and Arkadij Gurland founded the Bund Freie Presse und Literatur , which was directed against the activities of Willi Munzenberg's communist agitation apparatus. In the French capital he made friends with Konrad Heiden . When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Mühlen was interned as an "enemy alien". From August to December 1939 he was held in the Stade de Colombes (Paris). From May 1940 he was in the camp of Meslay-du-Maine ( Mayenne department ). In September 1940 he managed to escape during a deportation march. He escaped to the United States via Montauban and Marseille , which he reached in September 1941.

Mühlen, who took American citizenship in 1947 , submitted a number of books, both in English and German. The most important ones include a study on Hjalmar Schacht and a work on the family and company history of the Krupps . His journalistic attention was also directed to post-war developments in Germany. This included the question of the extent to which there would be a continuation or a revival of Jewish life in Germany after 1945 .

He also worked as a US correspondent for German-language magazines and newspapers - for example for the periodicals Der Mond and for Die Weltwoche  - and worked as an author for American journals such as the social democratic New Leader , Reader's Digest and National Review . His comments have been printed in many US newspapers. Mühlen was one of the founders of the Congress for Cultural Freedom . Mühlen also worked as managing director of the American Council on Germany . In 1960 he received the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class, for his activities to promote mutual understanding between Germans and Americans.

His wife was Ruth Berenson, a doctor of art critic with whom he occasionally published together. The couple had a daughter.

Fonts (selection)

• Kurt St. Baer: The fight against large retail businesses and the national economy . Jena: G. Fischer, 1932
• So the labor battle was lost . [Zurich?] [1936?]
• The Wizard. Life and bonds of Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Manhole . Preface by Konrad Heiden . Europa-Verlag, Zurich 1938.
  • Hitler's magician: Schacht: the life and loans of Dr. Hjalmar shaft . 1938
• The return of Germany, a tale of two countries . Chicago: Regnery, 1953 (310 pages)
  • Germany twice . German by Hilde Walter . Cologne: Politics and Economy, 1955 (426 pages)
• The Americans' image of Germany: an investigation d. public Opinion . From d. American. transferred by Elsbeth Focke. Edited by d. Atlantik-Brücke e. V., Hamburg-Wellingsbüttel. 1960
• The incredible Krupps. The Rise, Fall, and Comeback of Germany's Industrial Family . NY: Holt, 1959
  • The Krupps . Translation from the American by Walter Purgleitner. Scheffler, Frankfurt am Main 1960. (Also: Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1965.)
• The Survivors. A report on the Jews in Germany today . Crowell, New York 1962.
• The black Americans. Anatomy of a revolution . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1964.
• The Americans . Scheffler, Frankfurt am Main 1968
• America - on the contrary: anti-American and other views . Stuttgart: Seewald, 1972

Literature and sources

• Walter H. Wagoner: Norbert Muhlen, 72, a writer, Obituary . In: The New York Times , Aug 21, 1981, Late City Final Edition, Section B, Page 5, Column 1.
• Muehlen (Muhlen), Norbert . In: Herbert A. Strauss , Werner Röder (complete line): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933–1945 . Edited by the Institute for Contemporary History , Munich and Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration, Inc., New York. Vol. II, Part 2: L – Z, The Arts, Sciences and Literature. Verlag KGSaur, Munich / New York / London 1983, ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 837 f.
• Martin Meyer: Post-War Germany as Reflected in American Novels from the Occupation (1945–1955) . Narr, Tübingen 1994, ISBN 3-8233-4654-7 , p. 25 .
• German-language exile literature since 1933. Vol 4. bibliographies: writers, publishers and literary critics in the United States: Part 2. H - M. . Bern: Francke, 1994, pp. 1359-1366

Web links

• Literature by and about Norbert Mühlen in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by and about Muhlen, Norbert in the bibliographic database WorldCat

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Federal Archives: BArch 122/38734.
2. ↑ Michael Hochgeschwender : Freedom on the offensive? The Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Germans . Munich 1998, ISBN 3-486-56341-6 , p. 94.
3. ↑ Der Spiegel reported on more than 50 daily newspapers in which Mühlen's comments appeared. Incredible croup . In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 1960 ( online ).
4. ↑ Michael Hochgeschwender: Freedom on the offensive? The Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Germans . Munich 1998, ISBN 3-486-56341-6 , p. 116 and p. 163.
5. ↑ Federal Archives: BArch B 122/38734 (motivation for the proposal for the award of the Federal Cross of Merit).
6. ↑ Proof in the Federal Gazette . See the reason for the proposal, Federal Archives: BArch B 122/38734.
7. ↑ See Ruth Berenson: The Exhibition of Carolingian Art at Aachen . (PDF) In: Art Journal , Vol. 26, No. 2 (Winter, 1966-1967), pp. 160-165.
8. ↑ For example, the couple published an introduction together  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. to George Grosz .