Kurt Lehmann alias Konrad Merz came from a working class family; his father already died in 1914, the first year of World War One. Forced to earn his own living, he left school early. In 1928 he went to night school to gain his Abitur (allowing university entrance), studied law after 1932 and started writing. Following the Nazis’ seizure of power, he was ex-matriculated on racist grounds. Searched for by the Gestapo, the 26-year-old fled to the Netherlands in 1934. His first publication was released anonymously in the same year. Excerpts of his diary were printed in the exile newspaper Das Neue Tage-Buch, which was published in Paris, from 1933 onwards.

Two years later he published the novel Ein Mensch fällt aus Deutschland under the name Konrad Merz. In the book, which was published by the renowned Querido exile publishing house in Amsterdam, the native of Berlin deals with what he experienced in Germany after the Nazis seized power as well as his life as an emigrant in the Netherlands. He decided to publish using a pseudonym in order to protect his mother who was still living in Germany. Merz wrote another novel that was supposed to be published in Switzerland, but the manuscript got lost.

When the Netherlands were occupied by Germany and the writer received deportation orders, he hid himself in Amsterdam, The Hague and Ilpendam for three years, and survived thanks to the help of friends. He did not return to Germany after the war.

Merz became a psychotherapist and did not begin to write again until the 1970s. The manuscript of his second novel Generation ohne Väter (Generation without Fathers), which was thought to be lost, was found again and published in 1999 shortly before his death.

Selected works:
Ein Mensch fällt aus Deutschland (novel, 1936)
Generation ohne Väter (novel, 1999)

Further reading:
Klaus Schöffling (Hg.):Konrad Merz zum fünfundsiebzigsten Geburtstag am 2. April 1983, Zürich: Ammann 1993