In the days of the Weimar Republic, Wilhelm Speyer was a popular author whose works sold exceptionally well, were translated into several languages and in some cases made into films. "His humanism, his openness to foreign influences, his rejection of nationalism and German jingoism [set] the basic tone for his texts." (Sophia Ebert, Walter Benjamin und Wilhelm Speyer, 2018)

The writer, who had Jewish roots, fled to Austria at the beginning of 1933. His works were not initially banned in Germany. They were only added to the "List of Harmful and Undesirable Writings" in December 1938. By this time, Speyer's works were already being published by Querido Verlag in Amsterdam.

In the spring of 1938, the writer fled onward to France, where the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom awarded him a grant on the recommendation of Alfred Neumann. This enabled him to work on his juvenile novel Die Stunde des Tigers [The Hour of the Tiger] (1939). After war broke out, Speyer was interned for a short time. In 1941, he managed to escape to the USA with the help of the Emergency Rescue Committee. Like other authors such as Friedrich Torberg, Heinrich Mann and Alfred Polgar, Speyer was awarded a contract as a Hollywood scriptwriter, but this expired just a few months later. Speyer was dependent on the support of friends and aid organisations.

He returned to Germany in 1949. However, his exile novel Das Glück der Andernachs [The Fortunes of Andernachs] (1947), in which he once again recalled the world he was born into, the assimilated Jewish upper middle classes of imperial times, was not the success he had hoped.

Selected works:
Charlott etwas verrückt (Roman, 1927)
Der Kampf der Tertia (Jugendroman, 1927)
Ich geh aus und du bleibst da (Roman, zusammen mit Walter Benjamin, 1930)
Ein Mantel, ein Hut, ein Handschuh (Gesellschaftskomödie, zusammen mit Walter Benjamin, 1933)
Der Hof der schönen Mädchen (Roman, 1935)
Die Stunde des Tigers (Jugendroman, 1939)
Das Glück der Andernachs (Roman, 1947)

Further reading:
Karrenbrock, Helga/Fähnders, Walter (Hg.): Wilhelm Speyer (1887–1952). Zehn Beiträge zu seiner Wiederentdeckung, Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2009
Ebert, Sophia: Walter Benjamin und Wilhelm Speyer. Freundschaft und Zusammenarbeit, Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2018