Alexander Moritz Frey
Die eidgenössische Fremdenpolizei aber arbeitet hartnäckig daran, uns aus dem Lande zu bringen; mit fortwährenden Hinweisen darauf, daß wir uns hier nur vorübergehend aufhalten dürfen. Gerade bedrängt man mich von Bern aus wieder: was ich für meine Ausreise getan hätte; wie weit ich mit meinem Plan bin, meinen Sprachkenntnissen usw. gediehen sei. Ich konnte nur unklare Auskünfte geben. Was soll ich anfangen, wer nimmt mich auf, wer läßt mich arbeiten?
[But the Swiss Federal Aliens Police are working persistently to get us out of the country and constantly reminding us that we are only permitted to remain here temporarily. Right now, I am again being harassed by the authorities in Bern: what have I done towards leaving the country, how far has my plan progressed, has my knowledge of languages etc. improved. I was only able to give vague information. What should I start doing, who will take me in, who will let me work? (trans. ed.)]
Alexander Moritz Frey in a letter to Thomas Mann, 23 July 1940
| Born | on 29 March 1881 in Munich, Germany |
|---|---|
| Died | on 24 January 1957 in Zurich, Switzerland |
| Exile | Austria, Switzerland |
| Profession | Writer |
Alexander Moritz Frey became well known in the 1910s and 1920s for his ghost stories and the novel Solneman der Unsichtbare [Solneman the Invisible] (1914), another example of the fantasy genre. He later enjoyed greater success with the anti-war novel Die Pflasterkästen [The Cross Bearers] (1929), which appeared as part of a series with Erich Maria Remarque’s Im Westen nichts Neues [All Quiet on the Western Front] and is based on Frey’s experiences in the battlefield during World War I. From 1915 to 1918, Frey served as a medical orderly on the Western front in the same Bavarian reserve infantry regiment as Private Adolf Hitler, who later tried in vain to win Frey over to his Nazi ideology. On 27 February, the evening of the Reichstag fire, Frey was attending the "Pfeffermühlenball" (Pepper Mill Ball) in Munich at the house of his friend Thomas Mann who later became his tireless supporter in exile. On 15 March 1933, Frey fled to Salzburg in the boot of his colleague Alfred Neumann's car. In 1938, the year of his expatriation, he emigrated onward to Switzerland. Although the author was able to publish his works in the Basler National-Zeitung and other newspapers and journals during his years of exile in Switzerland, by the time of his death in Zurich in 1957, he was living in impoverished circumstances and had been largely forgotten. The isolation, turmoil and threat which Frey had already experienced during his years in Salzburg found their way into the grotesque exile novel Hölle und Himmel [Hell and Heaven], published in 1945 by Steinberg Verlag in which Frey not only has his alter ego Alexander Funk mirror his life in exile but also portrays his repugnant former “regimental comrade” Hitler in the character of Severin, the haunter of his dreams.
Selected works:
Solneman der Unsichtbare (Roman, 1914)
Die Pflasterkästen. Ein Feldsanitätsroman (Roman, 1929)
Der Mensch (Erzählung, 1940)
Hölle und Himmel (Roman, 1945)
Further reading:
Ernsting, Stefan: Der phantastische Rebell. Alexander Moritz Frey oder Hitler schießt dramatisch in die Luft. Atrium Verlag: Zürich 2007.
Walter, Hans-Albert: „Der Meisterzeichner von Nachtstücken und Traumgesichten“. Alexander Moritz Frey – wiederzuentdecken. Büchergilde Gutenberg: Frankfurt am Main 1988.
Gallery
