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Ludwig Fulda and the Nazis
German playwright Ludwig Fulda, winner of the Schiller Prize for his 1892 comedy, Der Talisman, first president of PEN in Germany (1925-32), and president of the Prussian Academy of Arts (1928), was born in Frankfurt on this date in 1862. Fulda wrote political plays that were “remarkable for their clever stage effects and insight into social problems,” according to the Jewish Virtual Library, and several were adapted into films. He also translated Moliere, Beaumarchais, Rostand, Shakespeare, Ibsen and other great writers. The rise of the Nazis in 1933 stripped him of influence and then his possessions, and when he was denied entry into the U.S. in 1939, he committed suicide.
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Lawrence Bush edited Jewish Currents from 2003 until 2018. He is the author of Bessie: A Novel of Love and Revolution and Waiting for God: The Spiritual Explorations of a Reluctant Atheist, among other books. His new volume of illustrated Torah commentaries, American Torah Toons 2, is scheduled for publication this year.
