WERFEL, FRANZ. – German writer, born in Prague to a Jewish family on 10 September 1890, died in Beverly Hills (California) on 27 August 1945.
He made his debut at a very young age with collections of lyric poetry, such as Weltfreund (1911), Wir sind (1912), and Einander (1914), which, in their inward search for spiritual values, generally reflect the Expressionist milieu and the atmosphere associated with the taste of Hugo von Hoffmannsthal. His first novel, Nicht der Mörder sondern der Ermordete ist schuldig, likewise reveals the same influences. His dramas Spiegelmensch (1912), which is a magical trilogy, and Paulus unter den Juden (1926), which is rather a dramatic legend, are lyrical visions more than genuine dramas; technically better constructed is Suarez und Maximilian, a historical drama written in 1924. But W. finds his most personal mode of expression in the novel. In Verdi, der Roman der Oper (1923), W. obliquely polemicizes against Wagner; in Barbara oder die Prömmigkeit, he succeeds in finding sincere and convincing accents in his treatment of a theme dear to him: humble, humanly simple, and pure faith, set against the perversity of the world. These are followed, inspired by the same ideal, by Der Abituriententag (1928), Das Reich Gottes in Böhmen (1930), and Die Geschwister von Neapel (1931); but in the novel Die vierzig Tage der Musa Dagh (1934), which recounts the epic story of a small community of Armenians who, in the name of their faith, fight far from home against the Turks, W. reaches his full maturity as a writer. Of his later works, Aus der Dämmerung einer Welt (1936); Der veruntreute Himmel (1939); Das Lied von
Bernadette (1941); Jakobovsky und der Oberst (1943); Stern der Ungeborenen (1946), Bernadette represents the noblest lyrical exaltation of that pure and ingenuous faith whose call he had felt so powerfully.