Paul Hofmann (20 November 1912 in Vienna – 30 December 2008) was an Austrian, later American, author, journalist, linguist, and political activist.
[1] The New York Times, for whom he was a foreign correspondent, described him as fluent in German, Italian, French, and English, and having a command of several other languages that was more than passable, as well as "a broad grasp of history and diplomatic affairs and an often playful curiosity".
In the late 1930s, as Austria came under increasing pressure to submit to a union with Germany, Hofmann wrote editorials urging his country to resist the Nazi initiative.
In November 1944 he was convicted in absentia and sentenced to death for treason by a German military court in occupied northern Italy.
[1] After his retirement from the Times, in 1990, he wrote more than a dozen books, including, The Seasons of Rome: A Journal, That Fine Italian Hand, Umbria: Italy's Timeless Heart (1999), The Viennese and O Vatican!