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{{For|the German politician|Joseph Roth (politician)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{short description|Austro-Hungarian novelist and journalist (1894–1939)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Joseph Roth
| image = Joseph Roth (1926).jpg
| alt =
| caption = Roth in 1926
| pen_name =
| birth_name = Moses Joseph Roth
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1894|09|02|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Brody]], [[Austrian Galicia|Galicia]], [[Austria-Hungary]] (now in Ukraine)
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1939|05|27|1894|09|02|df=y}}
| death_place = Paris, France
| resting_place = [[Cimetière parisien de Thiais|Cimetière de Thiais]]
| occupation = [[Journalist]], [[novelist]]
| language = German
| education = [[University of Lemberg]]<br>[[University of Vienna]]
| period = [[Interwar period]]
| genre = 
| subject = 
| movement =
| notable_works = ''[[Radetzky March (novel)|Radetzky March]]'', ''[[The Legend of the Holy Drinker]]''
| spouse = Friederike (Friedl) Reichler
| partner = [[Irmgard Keun]]
| children =
| relatives =
| awards =
| signature = Joseph Roth Signature.jpg
| signature_alt =
| years_active = 1920s–1939
}}
'''Moses Joseph Roth''' ({{IPA|de-AT|roːt|lang}}; 2 September 1894 – 27 May 1939) was an Austro-Hungarian journalist and novelist, best known for his [[family saga]] ''[[Radetzky March (novel)|Radetzky March]]'' (1932), about the decline and fall of the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]], his novel of Jewish life ''[[Job (novel)|Job]]'' (1930) and his seminal essay "Juden auf Wanderschaft" (1927; translated into English as ''[[The Wandering Jews]]''), a fragmented account of the Jewish migrations from eastern to western Europe in the aftermath of [[World War I]] and the [[Russian Revolution]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jroth.htm |title=Joseph Roth |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100923110558/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jroth.htm |archive-date=23 September 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>Author biography in ''Radetzky March'', Penguin Modern Classics, 1984.</ref> In the 21st century, publications in English of ''Radetzky March'' and of collections of his journalism from Berlin and Paris created a revival of interest in Roth.

==Biography==
[[File:Student identity card photo of Joseph Roth (4923336475).jpg|thumb|upright|Student identity card photo of Joseph Roth (ca. 1914)]]
Joseph Roth was born into a [[Jew]]ish family and grew up in [[Brody]] (currently in Ukraine), a small town near [[Lviv|Lemberg]] (now [[Lviv]], Ukraine) in [[Austrian Galicia|East Galicia]], in the easternmost reaches of what was then the [[Austro-Hungarian empire]]. [[Jewish culture]] played an important role in the life of the town, which [[History of the Jews in Brody|had a large Jewish population]]. Roth grew up with his mother and her relatives; he never saw his father, who had disappeared before he was born.<ref name="About Wandering 141">[[Michael Hofmann|Hofmann, Michael]]. "About the author", ''The Wandering Jews'', Granta Books, p. 141. {{ISBN|1-86207-392-9}}</ref>
[[File:Friederike (Friedl) Roth nee Reichler, circa 1920.jpg|thumb|upright|Friedl Reichler, c. 1920]]
[[File:Joseph_and_Friederike_(Friedl)_Roth_nee_Reichler_horseback_riding.jpg|thumb|upright|Joseph and Friederike (left, center) horseback riding]]

After secondary school, Joseph Roth moved to Lemberg to begin his university studies in 1913, before transferring to the [[University of Vienna]] in 1914 to study philosophy and [[German literature]]. In 1916, Roth broke off his university studies and volunteered to serve in the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]] on the [[Eastern Front (World War I) |Eastern Front]], "though possibly only as an army journalist or censor".<ref name="About Wandering 141" /> This experience had a major and long-lasting influence on his life. So, too, did the collapse in 1918 of the [[Austria-Hungary|Habsburg Empire]], which marked the beginning of a pronounced sense of "homelessness" that was to feature regularly in his work. As he wrote: "My strongest experience was the War and the destruction of my fatherland, the only one I ever had, the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary."<ref>As quoted in: Lazaroms, Ilse Josepha (2014-10-08), "Roth, Joseph", ''1914–1918-online''/''International Encyclopedia of the First World War''. Issued by Freie Universität Berlin. {{doi|10.15463/ie1418.10244}}. The quotation is from a letter to Otto Forst-Battaglia, dated 28 October 1932.</ref>

Roth married Friederike (Friedl) Reichler in 1922. In the late 1920s, his wife became [[schizophrenic]], which threw Roth into a deep crisis, both emotionally and financially. She lived for years in a sanatorium and was later murdered in the Nazis' [[Aktion T4]] programme.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/01/19/european-dreams|title=European Dreams: Rediscovering Joseph Roth|magazine=The New Yorker|date=19 January 2004}}</ref>

In 1929 he met Andrea Manga Bell, born in Hamburg and unhappily married to [[Alexandre Douala Manga Bell]], Prince of [[Douala]] in [[Cameroon]]. Her husband had returned to Cameroon while she and their children stayed in Europe. When Roth met her, she was editor of the Ullstein magazine ''Gebrauchsgraphik''.<ref>Robbie Aitken, Eve Rosenhaft: Black Germany: The Making and Unmaking of a Diaspora Community, 1884–1960. Cambridge 2013, pp. 114f. {{ISBN|1107435641}}, 9781107435643</ref>
Being a prominent liberal Jewish journalist, Roth left Germany when [[Adolf Hitler]] became [[Reich]] [[Chancellor#Germany|Chancellor]] on [[Machtergreifung|30 January 1933]]. Andrea Manga Bell accompanied him with her children. He spent most of the next six years in Paris, a city he loved. His essays written in France display a delight in the city and its culture.

Shortly after Hitler's rise to power, in February 1933, Roth wrote in a prophetic letter to his friend, the Austrian writer [[Stefan Zweig]]:

{{quote|You will have realized by now that we are drifting towards great catastrophes. Apart from the private—our literary and financial existence is destroyed—it all leads to a new war. I won't bet a penny on our lives. They have succeeded in establishing a reign of barbarity. Do not fool yourself. Hell reigns.<ref>38. Hell reigns. Letter of Joseph Roth to Stefan Zweig, February 1933. ''Hitlers Machtergreifung'', edited by Josef & Ruth Becker, Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 2nd edition, Munich, Germany, 1992, p. 70. {{ISBN|3-423-02938-2}}</ref>}}

The relationship with Andrea Manga Bell failed due to financial problems and Roth's jealousy. From 1936 to 1938, Roth had a romantic relationship with [[Irmgard Keun]]. They worked together, traveling to Paris, [[Wilna]], [[Lemberg]], Warsaw, Vienna, Salzburg, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Without denying his Jewish origins, Roth considered his relationship to [[Catholicism]] very important. In the final years of his life, he may have converted: Michael Hofmann states in the preface to the collection of essays '' The White Cities'' (also published as ''Report from a Parisian Paradise'') that Roth "was said to have had two funerals, one Jewish, one Catholic".

In his last years, he moved from hotel to hotel, drinking heavily and becoming increasingly anxious about money and the future. Despite suffering from chronic [[alcoholism]], he remained prolific until his death in Paris in 1939.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/26/books/joseph-roth-endless-flight-keiron-pim.html A Timely Biography Traces Joseph Roth’s Accounts of Fascism]</ref> His novella ''[[The Legend of the Holy Drinker]]'' (1939) chronicles the attempts made by an alcoholic vagrant to regain his dignity and honor a debt.

Roth's final collapse apparently was precipitated by learning that playwright [[Ernst Toller]] had hanged himself in New York on 22 May.<ref name="About Wandering 142" /> Roth died on 27 May from double pneumonia, aggravated by abrupt withdrawal of alcohol that produced ''[[delirium tremens]]'', and was buried on 30 May at the [[Cimetière de Thiais]] south of Paris.

==Journalism and literary career==
In 1918, Roth returned to Vienna and began writing for [[left-wing]] newspapers, signing articles published by ''[[Vorwärts]]'' as ''Der rote Joseph'' (''The red Joseph'', a play on his surname, which is homophonous with German ''rot'', "red", which is also the signalling color of communist parties in Europe). In 1920 he moved to Berlin, where he worked as a successful journalist for the ''{{ill|Das 12 Uhr Blatt|de|Das 12 Uhr Blatt|lt=Neue Berliner Zeitung}}'' and, from 1921, for the ''[[Berliner Börsen-Courier]]''. In 1923 he began his association with the liberal ''[[Frankfurter Zeitung]]'', traveling widely throughout Europe, and reporting from the South of France, the USSR, Albania, Poland, Italy, and Germany. According to his main English translator, [[Michael Hofmann]], "He was one of the most distinguished and best-paid journalists of the period, being paid at the dream rate of one [[Deutschmark]] per line."<ref name="About Wandering 142">Hofmann, Michael. "About the Author", ''The Wandering Jews'', Granta Books, p. 142. {{ISBN|1-86207-392-9}}</ref> In 1925 he spent a period working in France. He never again resided permanently in Berlin.
Roth has been referred to as one of the novelists who helped the emergence of what is nowadays called the [[Habsburg myth]].<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345783516|title=Europe's Malaise: The Long View|editor-first1=Francesco|editor-last1=Duina|editor-first2=Frédéric|editor-last2=Merand|chapter=The Habsburg Myth and the European Union|first=Helen|last=Thompson|author-link=Helen Thompson (political economist)|publisher=[[Emerald Group Publishing]]|volume=27|pages=45–66|year=2020|isbn=978-1-83909-042-4|issn=0895-9935|doi=10.1108/S0895-993520200000027005|s2cid=224991526|url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/323670}}</ref>

In 1923, Roth's first (unfinished) novel, ''The Spider's Web'', was serialized in an Austrian newspaper. He went on to achieve moderate success as a novelist with a series of books exploring life in post-war Europe, but only upon publication of ''Job'' and ''Radetzky March'' did he achieve acclaim for his fiction rather than his journalism.

From 1930, Roth's fiction became less concerned with contemporary society, with which he had become increasingly disillusioned, and began to evoke a [[Depression (mood)|melancholic]] [[nostalgia]] for life in imperial [[Central Europe]] before 1914. He often portrayed the fate of homeless wanderers looking for a place to live, in particular Jews and former citizens of the old Austria-Hungary, who, with the downfall of the monarchy, had lost their only possible ''[[Heimat]]'' ("true home"). In his later works, Roth appeared to wish that the monarchy could be restored. His longing for a more tolerant past may be partly explained as a reaction against the political extremism of the time, which culminated in Germany with [[National Socialism]]. The novel ''Radetzky March'' (1932) and the story "The Bust of the Emperor" (1935) are typical of this late phase. In another novel, ''The Emperor's Tomb'' (1938), Roth describes the fate of a cousin of the hero of ''Radetzky March'' up to Germany's [[Anschluss|annexation]] of Austria in 1938.

[[File:Grave-Joseph-Roth.jpg|thumb|upright|Grave of Roth at the [[Cimetière de Thiais]]]]

==Published works==
'''Fiction'''
*''The Spider's Web'' (''{{ill|Das Spinnennetz|de}}'') (1923, adapted in 1989 into a [[Spider's Web (1989 film)|film of the same title]])
*''[[Hotel Savoy (novel)|Hotel Savoy]]'' (1924)
*''[[Rebellion (novel)|The Rebellion]]'' (''Die Rebellion'') (1924; some editions of the English translation call it simply ''Rebellion'')
*"April: The Story of a Love Affair" (''April. Die Geschichte einer Liebe'') (1925; in ''The Collected Stories'')
*"The Blind Mirror" (''{{ill|Der blinde Spiegel|de}}'') (1925; in ''The Collected Stories'')
*''[[Flight without End]]'' (''Die Flucht ohne Ende'') (1927)
*''Zipper and His Father'' (''{{ill|Zipper und sein Vater|de}}'') (1928)
*''Right and Left'' (''{{ill|Rechts und links|de}}'') (1929)
*''The Silent Prophet'' (''{{ill|Der stumme Prophet|de}}'') (1929)
*''[[Job (novel)|Job]]'' (''Hiob'') (1930)
*''[[Radetzky March (novel)|Radetzky March]]'' (''Radetzkymarsch'') (1932; some English translations call it ''The Radetzky March'')
*"Fallmerayer the Stationmaster" (''{{ill|Stationschef Fallmerayer|de}}'') (1933; in ''The Collected Stories'')
*''{{ill|Tarabas|de}}'' (1934)
*"The Bust of the Emperor" (''{{ill|Die Büste des Kaisers|de}}'') (1934; in ''The Collected Stories'')
*''[[Confession of a Murderer]]'' (''Beichte eines Mörders'') (1936)
* ''The Hundred Days'' (''{{ill|Die hundert Tage|de}}'') (1936)
*''Weights and Measures'' (''{{ill|Das falsche Gewicht (novel)|de|Das falsche Gewicht. Die Geschichte eines Eichmeisters|lt=Das falsche Gewicht}}'') (1937) translation by David Le Vay with [[Pushkin Press]], 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Papers |first=Printed |date=2024-06-26 |title=Weights and Measures |url=https://pushkinpress.com/book/weights-and-measures/ |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=Pushkin Press |language=en-GB}}</ref>
*''[[The Emperor's Tomb]]'' (''Die Kapuzinergruft'') (1938)
*''The String of Pearls'' (''{{ill|Die Geschichte von der 1002. Nacht|de}}'') (1939)<ref>Nürnberger, Helmuth. ''Joseph Roth''. Reinbek, Hamburg, 1981, p. 152. {{ISBN|3-499-50301-8}}</ref>
*''[[The Legend of the Holy Drinker]]'' (''[[Die Legende vom heiligen Trinker]]'') (1939)
*"The Leviathan" (''{{ill|The Leviathan (novel)|de|Der Leviathan (Joseph Roth)|lt=Der Leviathan}}'') (1940; in ''The Collected Stories'')
*''The Collected Stories of Joseph Roth'', trans. by [[Michael Hofmann]], New York: W. W. Norton (2003)

'''Non-Fiction'''
*''[[The Wandering Jews]]'' (''Juden auf Wanderschaft'') (1927; reportage)
*''The Antichrist'' (''Der Antichrist'') (essay, 1934)
*''[[What I Saw: Reports from Berlin, 1920–1933]]'', trans. by Michael Hofmann, New York: W. W. Norton (2002) and London: Granta Books (2003)
*''The White Cities: Reports from France, 1925–39'', trans. by Michael Hofmann, London: Granta Books (2004); issued in the United States as ''Report from a Parisian Paradise: Essays from France, 1925–1939'', New York: W. W. Norton & Company (2004)
*''Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters'', trans. and edited by Michael Hofmann, New York: W. W. Norton (2012)
*''The Hotel Years'', trans. and edited by Michael Hofmann, New York: New Directions (2015)

== Filmography ==
*''[[Sins of Man]]'', directed by [[Otto Brower]] (1936, based on the novel ''[[Job (novel)|Job]]''), starring [[Jean Hersholt]]
*''Die Rebellion'', directed by [[Wolfgang Staudte]] (TV film, 1962, based on the novel ''[[Rebellion (novel)|Rebellion]]''), starring [[Josef Meinrad]]
*''Die Legende vom heiligen Trinker'', directed by {{Interlanguage link multi|Franz Josef Wild|de}} (TV film, 1963, based on the novel ''[[The Legend of the Holy Drinker]]''), starring [[Hannes Messemer]]
*''{{Interlanguage link multi|Radetzkymarsch (1965 film)|de|3=Radetzkymarsch (1965)|lt=Radetzkymarsch}}'', directed by [[Michael Kehlmann]] (TV film, 1965, based on the novel ''[[Radetzky March (novel)|Radetzky March]]''), starring [[Helmuth Lohner]]
*''Die Geschichte der 1002. Nacht'', directed by [[Peter Beauvais]] (TV film, 1969, based on the novel ''The String of Pearls''), starring [[Johanna Matz]]
*''Beichte eines Mörders'', directed by [[Wilm ten Haaf]] (TV miniseries, 1969, based on the novel ''[[Confession of a Murderer]]''), starring [[Hannelore Elsner]]
*''[[Trotta (film)|Trotta]]'', directed by [[Johannes Schaaf]] (1971, based on the novel ''[[The Emperor's Tomb]]''), starring [[Doris Kunstmann]]
*''[[Das falsche Gewicht]]'', directed by [[Bernhard Wicki]] (1971, based on the novel ''Weights and Measures''), starring [[Helmut Qualtinger]]
*''Stationschef Fallmerayer'', directed by [[Walter Davy]] (TV film, 1976, based on the novella ''Stationschef Fallmerayer''), starring [[Odile Versois]]
*''{{Ill|Job (miniseries)|de|3=Hiob (1978)|lt=Job}}'', directed by [[Michael Kehlmann]] (TV miniseries, 1978, based on the novel ''[[Job (novel)|Job]]''), starring [[Günter Mack]]
*''{{Ill|Geschichte einer Liebe|de|Geschichte einer Liebe (1978)}}'', directed by [[Dagmar Damek]] (TV film, 1978, based on the story ''April: The Story of a Love Affair''), starring [[Bruno Ganz]]
*''Tarabas'', directed by [[Michael Kehlmann]] (TV film, 1981, based on the novel ''Tarabas''), starring [[Helmuth Lohner]]
*''Die Flucht ohne Ende'', directed by [[Michael Kehlmann]] (TV film, 1985, based on the novel ''[[Flight without End]]''), starring [[Helmuth Lohner]] and [[Mario Adorf]]
*''[[The Legend of the Holy Drinker (film)|The Legend of the Holy Drinker]]'', directed by [[Ermanno Olmi]] (1988, based on the novel ''[[The Legend of the Holy Drinker]]''), starring [[Rutger Hauer]]
*''[[Spider's Web (1989 film)|Spider's Web]]'', directed by [[Bernhard Wicki]] (1989, based on the novel ''The Spider's Web''), starring [[Ulrich Mühe]], [[Armin Mueller-Stahl]] and [[Klaus Maria Brandauer]]
*''Die Rebellion'', directed by [[Michael Haneke]] (TV film, 1993, based on the novel ''[[Rebellion (novel)|Rebellion]]'')
*''{{Interlanguage link multi|Radetzkymarsch (1994 film)|de|3=Radetzkymarsch (1994)|lt=Radetzkymarsch}}'', directed by [[Axel Corti]] (TV miniseries, 1994, based on the novel ''[[Radetzky March (novel)|Radetzky March]]''), starring [[Max von Sydow]] and [[Charlotte Rampling]]

==See also==
* [[Exilliteratur]]

* [[List of Austrian writers]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{div col|colwidth=45em}}
* {{cite book|last=Brinkmann|first=Tobias|title=Between Borders: The Great Jewish Migration from Eastern Europe|place=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2024|isbn=978-01-9765-5658|ref=none}}
*{{cite journal | last1 = Giffuni | first1 = Cathe | year = 1991 | title = Joseph Roth: An English Bibliography | journal = Bulletin of Bibliography | volume = 48 | issue = 1| pages = 27–32|ref=none}}
* [[Michael Hofmann]], trans. and ed., ''Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters'' (New York: W. W. Norton, 2012).
* {{cite book|last=Lazaroms|first=Ilse Josepha|title=The Grace of Misery: Joseph Roth and the Politics of Exile, 1919–1939|place=Leiden and Boston|publisher=Brill|year=2013|isbn=978-90-0423-4857|ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Mauthner|first=Martin|title=German Writers in French Exile, 1933–1940|place=London|publisher=Vallentine Mitchell|year=2007|isbn=978-0-85303-540-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/germanwritersinf0000maut|ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Pim|first=Keiron|title=[[Endless Flight: The Life of Joseph Roth]]|location=London|publisher=Granta Books|year=2022|isbn=9781783785100 |ref=none}}
* {{Cite journal | last = Prang | first = Christoph | title = Semiomimesis: The influence of semiotics on the creation of literary texts. Peter Bichsel's ''Ein Tisch ist ein Tisch'' and Joseph Roth's ''Hotel Savoy''| journal = [[Semiotica]] | volume = 10 | issue = 182 | pages = 375–396| year = 2010|ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Snick|first=Els|title=Waar het me slecht gaat is mijn vaderland. Joseph Roth in Nederland en België|place=Amsterdam|publisher=Bas Lubberhuizen|year=2013|isbn=978-90-5937-3266|ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Sternburg|first=Wilhelm von|title=Joseph Roth. Eine Biographie|place=Cologne|publisher=Kiepenheuer & Witsch|year=2010|language=de|isbn=978-3-462-04251-1|ref=none}}
* Alexander Stillmark, (ed.) ''Joseph Roth. Der Sieg über die Zeit''. (1996).
* [[Volker Weidermann|Weidermann, Volker]] ([[Carol Brown Janeway]], translator), ''[[Ostend]]: [[Stefan Zweig]], Joseph Roth, and the Summer Before the Dark''. New York: Pantheon Books, 2016; ''Summer Before the Dark: Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, Ostend 1936''. London: Pushkin Press, 2017.
{{div col end}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category|Joseph Roth}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20000824090037/http://geocities.com/roth_online/index.html JRO – Joseph Roth Online]
* [http://www.lbi.org/digibaeck/results/?qtype=pid&term=121485 Joseph Roth Collection] at the Leo Baeck Institute
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Joseph Roth |sopt=t}}
* {{Librivox author |id=768}}

{{Joseph Roth|state=expanded}}
{{German literature}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Literature}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roth, Joseph}}
[[Category:Joseph Roth| ]]
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1939 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Brody]]
[[Category:Frankfurter Zeitung people]]
[[Category:Writers from Vienna]]
[[Category:University of Vienna alumni]]
[[Category:Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Austrian historical novelists]]
[[Category:Austrian monarchists]]
[[Category:Jews from Austria-Hungary]]
[[Category:Writers from Austria-Hungary]]
[[Category:Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe)]]
[[Category:Jewish novelists]]
[[Category:Exilliteratur writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Austrian male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Austrian journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Austrian male journalists]]
[[Category:Polish-language writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Austrian Jews]]

Joseph Roth - Revision history

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