[1] Bergengruen was born in Riga, Governorate of Livonia, which at that time belonged to the Russian Empire.

Bergengruen started writing novels and short stories in 1923 and decided to become a full-time writer in 1927.

His most successful novel, Der Großtyrann und das Gericht (The Grand Tyrant and the Judgment), published in 1935, is set in the Renaissance era, but the story of a merciless tyrant playing with the weaknesses of his underlings was often seen as a clear allegory on Germany's political situation.

The same year he moved to Munich; his new neighbour was Carl Muth, editor of the Catholic monthly Hochland.

Although Bergengruen was politically a staunch conservative, his Catholicism—as well as the fact that his wife was of partly Jewish heritage—contributed to his alienation from the Nazi regime.