For the young Peter Weiss the years of emigration from 1933 to 1945 represented his years of development as a writer and painter. He left Germany in 1934 as an 18-year-old with a Czechoslovakian passport on account of his Jewish father's nationality. He was brought up in Bremen and Berlin. His first port of exile was England, where he studied photography. In 1936 his father, Eugen Weiss, a draper with international connections, took over as manager of a velvet-making factory in Warnsdorf (Bohemia). From there, Peter Weiss emigrated on foot in July 1937 from Linz to  Hermann Hesse in Switzerland. Hesse encouraged him to study painting. From the summer of 1938 he lived as a painter in Casa Camuzzi in Montagnola and in nearby Carabietta in Ticino. His time in Switzerland, also marked by his friendships with Robert Jungk and Hermann Levin Goldschmidt in Zurich, ended in January 1939. Without returning to Prague, which was under threat at the time, he followed his parents who had sought refuge in Sweden. He worked for a year in a textile factory in Alingås which his father co-founded.

In the spring of 1941 he had an exhibition as a painter and illustrator in Stockholm. In 1945 he was granted Swedish citizenship. In 1947 he went as a correspondent of Stockholms Tidningen to Berlin to report on post-war German society. In the following years he directed various experimental films. As an author he was known as part of the "Fyrtiotalister" literary group. He wrote his literary texts in Swedish and wanted to be a Swedish writer. In the 1950s he returned to the German language. His play Marat / Sade, premiered in West Berlin in 1964, brought him international recognition. Peter Weiss explored the first Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt (1963-1965) in his documentary drama The Investigation (1965), which premiered simultaneously in both German states.

Selection of major works:
Das große Welttheater (Gemälde, 1937)
Der Hausierer (Gemälde, 1940)
Abschied von den Eltern (Roman, 1961)
Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade (Marat / Sade) (Drama, 1964)
Die Ermittlung (Drama, 1965)
Fluchtpunkt (Roman, 1965)
Die Ästhetik des Widerstands (Romantrilogie, 1975, 1978, 1981)

Further reading:
Bartsch, Ingo (Hg.): Der Maler Peter Weiss. Bilder, Zeichnungen, Collagen, Filme. Berlin: Frölich & Kaufmann 1982.
Beise, Arnd: Peter Weiss. Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun. 2002.
Homepage der Internationalen Peter-Weiss-Gesellschaft: http://www.peterweiss.org/