Born in Eluisenstein (now Ogre Municipality), Kreis Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (now Latvia), Thiess grew up in Berlin.

[1] Discharged after a few months because of a heart condition,[citation needed] he returned to Berlin and journalism.

[1] His early novels were focussed on contemporary subjects — Time magazine once called him "the hot trumpet in Germany's jazz age.

[1] His 1936 novel, Tsushima,[1] translated into English as The Voyage of Forgotten Men,[5] recounted the journey of the Russian Second Pacific Squadron, under the command of Admiral Rozhestvensky, from the Baltic Sea to the Sea of Japan, and its defeat by the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905.

[1] Thiess remained in Nazi Germany during World War II.