Quick Facts
CapricornBiography
Wilhelm Herzog (12 January 1884 in Berlin - 4 April 1960) was a German historian of literature and culture, dramatist, encyclopedist, and pacifist.
Life
He studied economics, Germanistics and history of art in Berlin. After publishing works about Lichtenstein (1905) and Heinrich von Kleist (1907), he became the editor of the literary magazine Pan. From 1914 to 1915 and from 1918 to 1929 he wrote for the Forum, a journal advocating global peace. He was also the publisher of the daily newspaper Die Republik from 1918 to 1919.
Between 1929 and 1933, he wrote Die Affäre Dreyfus (The Dreyfus Affair), Der Kampf einer Republik, and Panama.Die Affäre Dreyfus was adapted to English as the 1931 film Dreyfus and as a play by the theatre critic James Agate, having a short run in London as "I Accuse!", in 1937.In 1947 His work "From Dreyfus to Petain: the Struggle of a Republic" was copyrighted.
His main work was a 4 tome encyclopedia, Große Gestalten der Geschichte (Great Figures of History), conceived in the tradition of Diderot's Encyclopédie.
From 1915 to 1921 he was married to German film actress Erna Morena (1885-1962) and had one daughter with her.
Works
- Rund um den Staatsanwalt (1923)
- Die Affäre Dreyfus (1928, 1929)
- Der Kampf einer Republik (1933)
- Panama (1931, changed in 1950)
- Hymnen und Pamphlete (1939)
- Kritische Enzyklopädie (1949)