18 Facts About Hugo Bettauer

Maximilian Hugo Bettauer was a prolific Austrian writer and journalist, who was murdered by a Nazi Party follower on account of his opposition to antisemitism.

Hugo Bettauer was well known in his lifetime; many of his books were bestsellers and in the 1920s a number were made into films, most notably Die freudlose Gasse, which dealt with prostitution, and Die Stadt ohne Juden, a satire against antisemitism.

Maximilian Hugo Bettauer, later known as Hugo Bettauer, was born in Baden bei Wien on 18 August 1872, the son of the stockbroker Arnold Bettauer from Lemberg and his wife Anna.

Hugo Bettauer had two older sisters, Hermine and Mathilde.

At the age of 16 Bettauer ran away from home and travelled to Alexandria, from where the Austrian Consul sent him straight back again.

In 1890 Hugo Bettauer converted from the Jewish faith to the Evangelical church.

In Berlin Hugo Bettauer worked as a journalist and made a name for himself in connection with the exposure of a number of scandals.

In 1901 after the suicide of the director of the Berliner Hoftheater, whom he had accused of corruption, Hugo Bettauer was expelled from Kingdom of Prussia.

Hugo Bettauer then moved to Munich, where he worked in the cabaret Die Elf Scharfrichter and in the autumn of 1901 went to Hamburg to become director of the specialist publication Kuche und Keller.

In New York Hugo Bettauer worked as a newspaper journalist, and began to write serial novels for newspaper publication.

Immediately after the war Hugo Bettauer worked as a correspondent for various New York papers, and started an aid programme in New York for the people of Vienna.

Hugo Bettauer specialised in crime stories with a social message, which were extremely popular.

Hugo Bettauer was thus not only one of the most controversial, but one of the most successful writers of his time.

Hugo Bettauer's opponents sought to discredit him as an "asphalt litterateur" - a term used by traditionalists and Nazis to criticise writers and writing for departing from German homeland.

Over time the conflict escalated: Hugo Bettauer was publicly vilified, his newspaper was confiscated, and eventually a legal action was brought against him; a side-effect of which was an outbreak of public threats and calls for his murder.

Surprisingly, Hugo Bettauer was acquitted; the subsequent edition of his newspaper reached a circulation of 60,000, the highest ever among weeklies of the period; in March 1925 its expansion was being seriously considered.

Hugo Bettauer was taken to hospital in Vienna with serious injuries and died on 26 March 1925.

Hugo Bettauer was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering, where his ashes are buried.