On account of his success, Alfred Neumann is regarded as the great exception among the numerous German exile writers who tried their luck as a film-author in Hollywood after emigrating to the United States. His script for the war movie None Shall Escape was nominated for an Academy Award in 1944. The film was followed by Conflict in 1945 in which Humphrey Bogart played a starring role and for which Neumann and the director Robert Siodmak wrote the screenplay.

Neumann came to Munich in 1913. He was an editor at the Georg Müller publishing house and worked from 1918 to 1920 at the Munich Kammerspiele. From 1925 he lived close to the Munich Herzogpark in the neighbourhood of Thomas Mann, with whom he was friends. After his initial successes his big break came in 1926 with the historical novel Der Teufel. He became one of the most widely read authors of the Weimar Republic.

In 1933, Alfred Neumann went into exile in Fiesole, near Florence, where he had maintained a second home since the mid-1920s. When racist legislation based on the German model was also introduced in Italy in 1938, Neumann fled to Nice, where he lived until the end of 1940.

Neumann, whose books and screenplays mostly revolved around historical material, remained a successful author in exile, and his books were translated into numerous languages. With his own livelihood secured, he committed himself to the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom for artists in need.

After his third escape via Marseille, Spain and Lisbon to the United States he settled in Hollywood. Neumann became an American citizen in October 1946. He died in Lugano in 1952. 

Selection of important works:
Der Patriot (Erzählung, 1925)
Der Teufel (Roman, 1926)
Neuer Cäsar (Roman, 1934)
Kaiserreich (Roman, 1936)
Es waren ihrer sechs (Roman, 1944)
Der Pakt (Roman, 1949) 

Further reading
Stern, Guy (Hrsg.): Alfred Neumann. Eine Auswahl aus seinem Werk. Wiesbaden: Steiner Verlag 1979.