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Franz Werfel (1890-1945)
poet & Alma´s husband no.3
Listen to Franz Werfel's voice:
Werfel recites some of his poems
Der
schöne Strahlende
Elternlied
Der
Wanderer kniet
Lächeln
Atmen Schreiten
When, in November 1917, Alma became acquainted with the young
poet Franz Werfel, the person she described as a »fat
bow-legged Jew with bulging lips« did not displease
her at all; indeed, a passionate liaison erupted between them.
Werfel, who was eleven years younger, saw in Alma his saviour,
his goddess, someone whom he was allowed to worship. As often
as possible, Alma visited him in his room at the Hotel Bristol,
and after they had made love, she would mercilessly despatch
him back to his writing desk.
At the beginning of 1918, Alma, who still bore her married
name of Gropius, became pregnant. The baby was born prematurely,
since Werfel was unable to hold back his insatiable lust and
forced the child out of his loved one´s womb in a veritable
bloodbath. Ten months later, baby Martin was dead, a consequence
of Werfel´s »degenerate seed«, as Alma put
it. All the same, she spent a lifetime caring for her »Franzl«;
he was »a tiny bird in her hand«, who needed her
protection. It was thanks to Alma´s stimulating ambition
that Werfel achieved his international career, which climaxed
in the novel »The Forty Days of Musa Dagh« and
the works filmed by Hollywood, »The Song of Bernadette«
and »Jacobowsky and the Colonel«.
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The seizing of power by the Nazis and the prohibition of his
works forced Werfel to flee with Alma, whom he had married in
1929, via France into exile, which finally took them to Hollywood.
Although his interest in the work of the Jewish pioneers took
him to Palestine in 1924, he did not participate in the creation
of the Jewish state. Robbed of his cultural roots, he died in
Hollywood in 1945, an embittered man. He was buried in a smoking
jacket and silk shirt, with a second shirt to change, and his
spectacles in his jacket pocket. |
