As a young man, Heinz Liepman was already working as a journalist, playwright and writer. Some of his novels such as Die Hilflosen or Der Frieden brach aus, both published in 1930, were translated into English and French and gained international recognition. This earned him the Harper Literature Award in 1930 and his literary breakthrough in Germany. Liepman also began to write for the Weltbühne in 1930. After the rise to power of the National Socialists his works were banned and burned because of his public statements against the Nazis from July 1932 and his Jewish origin.

In 1933 he fled to France and the Netherlands. In the same year he wrote one of the very first exile novels: Das Vaterland. In February 1934 this led to his indictment and arrest in the Netherlands, having been accused of insulting the Reich President Paul von Hindenburg in the novel. Liepman was sentenced to a month in prison, he was also threatened with deportation to Germany. Numerous public protests were the probable reason for his release from prison a month later and his deportation to Belgium. Liepman lived in London from 1935 to 1937 before moving to the United States in 1937. He wrote articles on German exile writers and literature for the New York Times.

Heinz Liepman returned to Germany in 1947 and published articles in various newspapers. From 1959 he was a frequent contributor to the daily newspaper Die Welt. There he had the opportunity to write political articles such as Müssen wir wieder emigrieren? (Must we emigrate again?) which explored the ways in which the Federal Republic dealt with its Nazi past. The lack of social confrontation with the Nazi past was a major reason why he moved to Switzerland in late 1961 - his "second emigration". After returning from US exile, he met his future wife, Ruth Liepman Lilienstein, in 1947. In 1949 he founded a literary agency with her, "Liepman AG", which has been based in Zurich since 1961. Until his death, Liepman observed and gave his opinion on the political and social situation in the Federal Republic.

Further reading:
Müller-Salget, Klaus: Zum Beispiel Heinz Liepmann. In: Exilforschung 3, 1985, S. 287-308.
Schneider, Thomas F.: „Müssen wir wieder emigrieren?“ Heinz Liepman und die Emigration als Chiffre politisch- moralischen Handelns. In: Krieg und Nachkrieg. Konfiguration der deutschsprachigen Literatur (1940-1965), 2004, S. 65-76.
Weinke, Wilfried: „Ich werde vielleicht später einmal Einfluß zu gewinnen suchen…“. Der Schriftsteller und Journalist Hein Liepman (1905-1966). In: Erich Maria Remarque Jahrbuch/Yearbook XVI (2006), S. 7-24. 

Selected works:
Nächte eines alten Kindes (Roman, 1929)
Die Hilflosen (Roman, 1930)
Das Vaterland. Ein Tatsachenroman aus dem heutigen Deutschland (Roman, 1933)
…wird mit dem Tode bestraft (Roman, 1935)
Ein deutscher Jude denkt über Deutschland nach (1961)