Louis Fürnberg

Louis Fürnberg (24 May 1909 in Jihlava, Moravia – 23 June 1957 in Weimar, East Germany) was a Czechoslovakian-German writer, poet and journalist, composer and diplomat.

[2][3] Fürnberg was born into a German-speaking Jewish family of textile factory owners in the Moravian city of Iglau (now Jihlava), then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Thus, Louis Fürnberg spent his childhood and youth in Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary).

In May 1932, he founded the Agitprop group "Echo von Links"; between 1932 and 1936 he worked as their copywriter.

While working on a project for the group in 1936, Fürnberg met Lotte Wertheimer, the daughter of a Jewish entrepreneur from Prague, who was also a Communist.

After the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939, the Fürnbergs attempted to flee to Poland, but were betrayed and captured.

[1] The members of their family who were unable to leave German controlled territory were murdered in the Holocaust.

[1] Fürnberg wrote for magazines such as "Orient" which were aimed at fellow German-speaking exiles.

The conspicuous antisemitism of the late-Stalin era of the Soviet Union had a particularly strong effect in Czechoslovakia, under the government of Klement Gottwald.

In 1953, Fürnberg was awarded the Julius Fucik Prize for his journalism, named for Czechoslovak journalist who was murdered by the Nazis.

At the age of 48 he died in the night of 23 June 1957, and was buried in a grave of honour in the Historische Friedhof, Weimar after a solemn funeral.

After his death, his widow, who had worked as a radio editor for many years, led the Louis Fürnberg Archive in Weimar.

Fürnberg's dramas, festival works and cantatas show his communist beliefs, which he held until his death.