Andreas Latzko

Andreas Latzko

Andreas Latzko was an Austrian Jewish pacifist and novelist. Andreas Latzko attended grammar school in Budapest and graduated there from high school. He served in the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian army as a one-year volunteer and was a reserve officer of the Ersatzheer. He went to Berlin, first he studied at the University of Berlin chemistry, later, philosophy. His first literary works he wrote in Hungarian language. His first literary work in German language, a one-act play, was published in Berlin. As a journalist he travelled to Egypt, India, Ceylon and Java. With the start of the Great War in August 1914 he returned to Egypt and served as an officer in the Imperial and Royal Wehrmacht of Austria-Hungary. With the beginning of the war between Italy and Austria-Hungary he was sent to the front on the river Isonzo. He fell ill with malaria, but he had to remain at the front till he suffered a severe shock from a heavy Italian artillery attack near Gorizia / Gorica / Grz. After eight months in the hospital he moved at the end of 1916 to Switzerland for recovering to a resort. In 1917 he wrote at Davos six novels for his book Men in War which deals with the situation of the Great War at the Isonzofront. In the same year the book was published in Zurich by the Rascher-Edition anonymous. Karl Kraus wrote in his magazine Die Fackel a review about it: This book is a scream and a relevant document about the Great War and humanity. Some people know the day is not to so far off when the officials of Austria will be proud to be involved into the war by that book. The book was a great success and translated into 19 languages, but it was banned in all states involved in the war. Therefore Latzko was demoted by the army supreme command. In 1918 the book was printed in thirty-three thousand copies. The book was widely praised at the time, with one critic describing the novel's theme of "disillusionment and an almost morbid sympathy with mental and physical suffering" as well as "a prevailing nihilistic tone", and the New York Times describing it as "a bitter attack upon the by-products of the Teutonic military idea.". In the same year Latzko wrote the novel The Judgement of Peace in six sections about the lives of German soldiers on the Western Front. Also in 1918 the novel The Wild Man was published. For the International Womens Conference in Bern Latzko wrote the text Women in War. In Switzerland he met Romain Rolland and Stefan Zweig. With the end of the war in 1918 moved to Munich Latzko and followed the Bavarian republic of Gustav Landauer. He was expelled from Bavaria and moved to Salzburg. There he met Georg Friedrich Nicolai, who published in 1917 the book The Biology of War, during Nicolais visit of Stefan Zweig. In Salzburg Latzko worked as a journalist and wrote articles for several newspaper. In 1929 his novel "Seven Days" was published. 1931 he moved to Amsterdam. In 1933 his books were burned by the Nazis. On the run from the Nazis, he came to New York in the USA, where he died impoverished in 1943 on 11 September.

Andreas Latzko's Books:

[Men In War]

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