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Joseph Roth

What i saw

Having served in the army during World War I, Joseph Roth returned to Vienna in 1919 and became a journalist for Der Neue Tag. When it folded in 1920 he moved to Berlin and freelanced for as many as six newspapers at a time, before being contracted to the Frankfurter Zeitung in 1923. He was considered to be one of the most respected and best-paid journalists of the time, and demanded the fee of one Mark per line of text.

In his novels and his journalism he sought out the underdog, and wrote passionately about the Jews and immigrants, the homeless, the destitute and the unfortunates of the city. It is thought that during his time in Berlin, he never really settled anywhere and mostly stayed with friends or in hotels.

He moved to Paris with his wife in 1925, but remained a frequent visitor to Berlin up until the Nazis took power in 1933.

In Paris, he continued to write prolifically but was spiralling into alcoholism. His final novel, Die Legende vom heiligen Trinker (The Legend of the Holy Drinker), was published just before his death in 1939.