Joseph Roth (1894–1939)
Author of The Radetzky March
About the Author
Author and journalist Joseph Roth was born on September 2, 1894. During World War I, he served in the Austro-Hungarian army from 1916 to 1918. Afterwards, he worked as a journalist in Vienna and in Berlin. His best-known works are The Radetzky March and Job. He died in Paris on May 27, 1939 and is show more buried in Thiais Cemetery. (Bowker Author Biography) Joseph Roth is the author of such classics as The Radetzky March and The Emperor's Tomb. He died in Paris in 1939. (Publisher Provided) show less
Image credit: Joseph Roth, 1918
Works by Joseph Roth
Report from a Parisian Paradise: Essays from France, 1925-1939 (1999) — Author — 222 copies, 1 review
Three Novellas: The Legend of the Holy Drinker / Fallmerayer the Stationmaster / The Bust of the Emperor (1997) 55 copies, 3 reviews
Años de hotel: Postales de la Europa de entreguerras: 401 (El Acantilado) (2020) 25 copies, 1 review
Joseph Roth, waarnemer van zijn tijd : een keuze uit zijn journalistieke werk (1919-1939) (1981) — Author — 13 copies
I cento giorni e altri racconti 8 copies
Fyra romaner : Spindelnt̃et; Den stumme profeten; Den falska vikten; Kapucinerkryptan (2018) 7 copies
Joseph Roth Werke. Das journalistische Werk 1915-1939. Romane und Erzaehlungen 1916-1940. 6 volumes (1989) 5 copies
La montée du nazisme: Suivi de L’Anneau des Niebelungen puis de Les Juifs et les Niebelungen (2024) 4 copies
I grandi romanzi: Fuga senza fine-Giobbe-La marcia di Radetzky-La cripta dei cappuccini-La leggenda del santo bevitore. Ediz. integrali (2012) 4 copies
Aber das Leben marschiert weiter und nimmt uns mit : der Briefwechsel zwischen Joseph Roth und dem Verlag De Gemeenschap 1936-1939 (1991) 4 copies
Schijnwereld filmkritieken 1919-1935 3 copies
Le Cabinet des figures de cire, précédé d' Images viennoises. Esquisses et portraits (2009) 3 copies
Various 3 copies
Werke in drei Bänden (Zweiter Band) 3 copies
Joseph Roth - Gesammelte Werke: Die Geschichte von der 1002. Nacht, Hotel Savoy, Hiob, Radetzkymarsch, Das Spinnennetz, Die Flucht ohne Ende, Reportagen ... Werke bei Null Papier… (2014) — Author — 3 copies
Werke in drei Bänden (Dritter Band) 2 copies
El leviatan i altres narracions (Stationsche Fallmerayer, Die Büste des Kaisers, Der leviathan) (2014) 2 copies, 1 review
Werke in drei Bänden (Erster Band) 2 copies
Sämtliche Werke von Joseph Roth 2 copies
Joseph Roth: Gesamtausgabe - Sämtliche Romane und Erzählungen und Ausgewählte Journalistische Werke: Neue überarbeitete Auflage (2020) 2 copies
L'avventuriera di Montecarlo: Scritti sul cinema (1919-1935) (Piccola biblioteca Adelphi) (Italian Edition) (2015) 2 copies
DIE REBELLION. Fruhe romane. [Das Spinnennetz. Hotel Savoy. Die Rebellion. Die F (1984) — Author — 2 copies
Radetsky mars 1 copy
Ο βουβός προφήτης 1 copy
Hành khúc Radetzky 1 copy
Das Moskauer Jüdische Akademische Theater — Author — 1 copy
Albania 1 copy
Job roman van een gewone man 1 copy
Βερολινέζικη χρόνια 1 copy
Schijnwereld 1 copy
The Spiderweb 1 copy
Hotel Savoy 1 copy
Le Parapluie 1 copy
Der neue Tag 1 copy
Veronica 2030 1 copy
Opere 1916-1930 1 copy
Joseph Roth Werke - Neue erweiterte Ausgabe in vier Bänden (4 Bände komplett). (1975) — Author — 1 copy
Flyktningen Franz Tunda 1 copy
Bežanje bez kraja 1 copy
Karriere (German Edition) 1 copy
Gesammelte Werke von Joseph Roth: Radetzkymarsch + Hiob + Hotel Savoy + Das Spinnennetz + Beichte eines Mörders… (2017) 1 copy
Professor Cecil Roth 1 copy
La Rebel·lió. Tasta'm 1 copy
Werke [6 Bände] 1 copy
Associated Works
A Very German Christmas: The Greatest Austrian, Swiss and German Holiday Stories of All Time (2020) — Contributor — 36 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Roth, Moses Joseph (birth name)
- Birthdate
- 1894-09-02
- Date of death
- 1939-05-27
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Lviv University
University of Vienna - Occupations
- journalist
features correspondent
novelist
short story writer - Organizations
- Imperial Habsburg army (WWI)
Frankfurter Zeitung - Relationships
- Keun, Irmgard (lover)
Zweig, Stefan (friend)
Morgenstern, Soma (friend) - Short biography
- Joseph Roth was born into a Jewish family in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and served in the Imperial army in World War I. After the war, he became a journalist and travelled widely, including making numerous trips to Russia. During this period, he wrote several novels, novellas, and volumes of short stories. He became a star correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung, and in 1932 published his masterpiece, The Radetzky March. As a Jew, a leftist, and an outspoken critic of Nazism, he knew he had to flee Germany on January 30, 1933, the day the Nazis took power -- never to return. Thereafter, he lived hand-to-mouth working as a journalist alternately in Amsterdam and Paris. He died in the latter city in alcoholism and poverty in 1939.
- Cause of death
- pneumonia
alcoholism - Nationality
- Austria-Hungary (Austrian)
- Birthplace
- Brody, Galicia, Austria-Hungary
- Places of residence
- Brody, Galicia, Ukraine
Berlin, Germany
Thiais, Paris, Île-de-France, France
Amsterdam, Netherlands - Place of death
- Paris, Île-de-France, France
- Burial location
- Thiais cemetery, Paris, France
- Map Location
- Austria
Members
Discussions
The Radetzky March ~ Joseph Roth in Quote Keepers (June 2025)
132. Job by Joseph Roth in Backlisted Book Club (March 2022)
Group Read, June 2014: The Radetsky March in 1001 Books to read before you die (July 2014)
Reviews
"The fatherland no longer existed. It was crumbling, it was breaking apart."
By sally tarbox on 2 August 2018
Format: Kindle Edition
I know we're only halfway through the year, but I'm going to say this will be the best book I read in 2018; it's absolutely exquisite writing, up there with Tolstoy.
Set in the dying days of the Austro-Hungarian empire (it closes with the outbreak of WW1), this is the story of three generations of the Trotta family, who rise to prominence in the first few pages show more when one Joseph Trotta has the presence of mind to shield the Emperor from a bullet while in battle. We follow the ennobled Trotta, a stiff, formal military man, unswervingly loyal to the ruler. We have hopes that his softer-hearted son will break the mould...but he takes on the same characteristics, running an inflexible household and putting the fear of God into his own son, who is early on entered into the military.
The novel primarily follows the youngest scion as he experiences various traumas in his life, and seems to be becoming a (relatively) independent-thinking character; and through contact with his world, his father too starts to realise the impending fate of the Empire he has always revered .
And behind it all is the long-lived Emperor Franz Josef, a fixture in the lives of all three Trottas, but who now is a very old man...
Every time I put this down, I was just struck with the ability of the author to so bring to life a world and his characters. Utterly wonderful writing show less
By sally tarbox on 2 August 2018
Format: Kindle Edition
I know we're only halfway through the year, but I'm going to say this will be the best book I read in 2018; it's absolutely exquisite writing, up there with Tolstoy.
Set in the dying days of the Austro-Hungarian empire (it closes with the outbreak of WW1), this is the story of three generations of the Trotta family, who rise to prominence in the first few pages show more when one Joseph Trotta has the presence of mind to shield the Emperor from a bullet while in battle. We follow the ennobled Trotta, a stiff, formal military man, unswervingly loyal to the ruler. We have hopes that his softer-hearted son will break the mould...but he takes on the same characteristics, running an inflexible household and putting the fear of God into his own son, who is early on entered into the military.
The novel primarily follows the youngest scion as he experiences various traumas in his life, and seems to be becoming a (relatively) independent-thinking character; and through contact with his world, his father too starts to realise the impending fate of the Empire he has always revered .
And behind it all is the long-lived Emperor Franz Josef, a fixture in the lives of all three Trottas, but who now is a very old man...
Every time I put this down, I was just struck with the ability of the author to so bring to life a world and his characters. Utterly wonderful writing show less
What use are my words against the guns, the loudspeakers, the murderers, the deranged ministers, the clueless diplomats, the stupid interviewers and journalists who interpret the voice of this world of Babel, muddied anyhow, via the drums of Nuremberg?
In sad resignation
Your Joseph Roth
These despairing words were published in Parisian journal Das Neue Tage-Buch on the 17th October, 1934. By that time, novelist Joseph Roth had been living in Paris for nearly twenty months, having left Berlin show more for good on the 30th January, 1933, the same day that Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. In the years leading up to his death in May 1939, Roth battled depression, alcoholism and poverty whilst working some of his best-known novels. He also wrote several incendiary articles denouncing the rise of Nazism and the demise of European culture, which were published mainly in the Pariser Tageszeitung and Das NeueTagebuch, German language newspapers meant for the exiled community.
The present collection, edited and translated by Will Stone for Pushkin Press brings together a selection of such essays but, very aptly, starts with an earlier article from March 1924 in which Roth compares Hitler’s trial following the unsuccessful beer hall putsch to a “carnival night”. As Roth perspicaciously notes, these so-called judicial proceedings actually worked in Hitler’s favour by giving him a platform for his racist ideas.
In his later essays, Roth becomes more extreme in his attacks not only on Hitler and his entourage, but also on the other European powers, particularly Britain and France, who seemed blind to what was actually happening in Germany. Roth draws a link between the regime’s disregard for “culture” and the heinous crimes of the regime: “it is not by some fortuitous coincidence that you see them burning books at the exact same moment as they mistreat the Jews: these are merely two separate manifestations of the nation’s spiritual state. It is no less symbolic that the control of the Fine Arts has been placed in the hands of the Minister of Propaganda!”
Initially, it seems that Roth had hopes that Austria could act as a bulwark to Hitler, preserving Mitteleuropean culture and values without descending into Nazi hell. Following the Anschluss however, even this hope is shattered.
In most of the articles, Roth sounds like a crazed Old Testament prophet, pulling no punches and sparing no one whom he deems guilty of colluding with the Nazis or not standing up to them. At times, his rants seem hyperbolic. Except that we have the benefit of hindsight, and we know that his dire warnings were, alas, spot-on. This is, of course, a very sobering thought. Because if Roth, a down-and-out author eking out an existence in a Paris hotel, could perceive that the “end of the world” was nigh, surely those who could have opposed Hitler and did not, could not claim that they could not predict where the Nazi train would lead.
Some of the articles provide a respite from Roth’s more aggressive essays. “Rest while viewing the demolition” is a particularly moving piece. Roth watches the destruction of the Foyot, the hotel where he lived since his exile, from a bistro opposite the site. He engages in banter with the demolition men but his heart is heavy: “Now I sit opposite the empty space, listening to the hours pass. You lose one homeland, then another, I say to myself. Here I sit, with my vagabond’s staff. My feet are sore, my heart is weary, my eyes are dry. Misery crouches beside me, ever gentler and ever greater; pain drops by, becoming great and beneficent, horror blasts its way in, but doesn’t scare me anymore. And that’s the most inconsolable thing of all”.
This collection is a stern warning that the Nazi tragedy did not happen overnight, and that the writing on the wall was there for all to see. In this regard, the endnotes and the timeline aligning Roth’s final years with the rise of Hitler and the events leading to World War II is particularly helpful in providing a context to this eye-opening read.
3.5* show less
In sad resignation
Your Joseph Roth
These despairing words were published in Parisian journal Das Neue Tage-Buch on the 17th October, 1934. By that time, novelist Joseph Roth had been living in Paris for nearly twenty months, having left Berlin show more for good on the 30th January, 1933, the same day that Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. In the years leading up to his death in May 1939, Roth battled depression, alcoholism and poverty whilst working some of his best-known novels. He also wrote several incendiary articles denouncing the rise of Nazism and the demise of European culture, which were published mainly in the Pariser Tageszeitung and Das NeueTagebuch, German language newspapers meant for the exiled community.
The present collection, edited and translated by Will Stone for Pushkin Press brings together a selection of such essays but, very aptly, starts with an earlier article from March 1924 in which Roth compares Hitler’s trial following the unsuccessful beer hall putsch to a “carnival night”. As Roth perspicaciously notes, these so-called judicial proceedings actually worked in Hitler’s favour by giving him a platform for his racist ideas.
In his later essays, Roth becomes more extreme in his attacks not only on Hitler and his entourage, but also on the other European powers, particularly Britain and France, who seemed blind to what was actually happening in Germany. Roth draws a link between the regime’s disregard for “culture” and the heinous crimes of the regime: “it is not by some fortuitous coincidence that you see them burning books at the exact same moment as they mistreat the Jews: these are merely two separate manifestations of the nation’s spiritual state. It is no less symbolic that the control of the Fine Arts has been placed in the hands of the Minister of Propaganda!”
Initially, it seems that Roth had hopes that Austria could act as a bulwark to Hitler, preserving Mitteleuropean culture and values without descending into Nazi hell. Following the Anschluss however, even this hope is shattered.
In most of the articles, Roth sounds like a crazed Old Testament prophet, pulling no punches and sparing no one whom he deems guilty of colluding with the Nazis or not standing up to them. At times, his rants seem hyperbolic. Except that we have the benefit of hindsight, and we know that his dire warnings were, alas, spot-on. This is, of course, a very sobering thought. Because if Roth, a down-and-out author eking out an existence in a Paris hotel, could perceive that the “end of the world” was nigh, surely those who could have opposed Hitler and did not, could not claim that they could not predict where the Nazi train would lead.
Some of the articles provide a respite from Roth’s more aggressive essays. “Rest while viewing the demolition” is a particularly moving piece. Roth watches the destruction of the Foyot, the hotel where he lived since his exile, from a bistro opposite the site. He engages in banter with the demolition men but his heart is heavy: “Now I sit opposite the empty space, listening to the hours pass. You lose one homeland, then another, I say to myself. Here I sit, with my vagabond’s staff. My feet are sore, my heart is weary, my eyes are dry. Misery crouches beside me, ever gentler and ever greater; pain drops by, becoming great and beneficent, horror blasts its way in, but doesn’t scare me anymore. And that’s the most inconsolable thing of all”.
This collection is a stern warning that the Nazi tragedy did not happen overnight, and that the writing on the wall was there for all to see. In this regard, the endnotes and the timeline aligning Roth’s final years with the rise of Hitler and the events leading to World War II is particularly helpful in providing a context to this eye-opening read.
3.5* show less
The premise of Radetzky March is deceptively simple. At the start it follows the three generations of the Trotta family at the end of the Hapsburg Empire. Grandfather, Captain Trotta, saved the life of Emperor Franz Joseph and was forever known as the Hero of Solferino. All in all, the characters of Radetzky March are incredibly dismissive. One character has a relationship where after twenty years he still cannot remember if his friend has sons or daughters. He only knows Herr Nechwas has show more now adult children. Herr von Trotta und Sipolje can never remember the personal details of another human's life. A father decides his son's profession by simply saying "I've decided that you're going to be a lawyer" (p 15). Never mind what the son wants. You have to feel sorry for Carl as he is always under the thumb of his father; insecure around other men of military standing. Radetzky March follows Carl's life as he makes his way under the shadow of a hero grandfather and a unsympathetic father. He can never live up to their grandeur and his life descends into a world of debt, adultery, alcoholism, and a lost sense of self. Joseph Roth has written a beautiful tragedy. show less
This novel moves forward with all the drama of shifting tectonic plates: everything looks unchanging and permanent but the almost undetectable underlying drift causes the pressure to build, build, build until the climactic release and everything that appeared permanent is no more. Roth's style, a slightly odd but enjoyable mix of sentiment and satire, captures this inexorable movement very effectively. 9 February 2017
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Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 228
- Also by
- 13
- Members
- 13,159
- Popularity
- #1,772
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 328
- ISBNs
- 1,129
- Languages
- 27
- Favorited
- 70
