Johannes Mario Simmel

Johannes Mario Simmel (7 April 1924 – 1 January 2009), also known as J. M. Simmel, was an Austrian writer.

He was born in Vienna and grew up in Austria and England. He was trained as a chemical engineer and worked in research from 1943 to the end of World War II. After the end of the war, he worked as a translator for the United States Office of Military Government based in Germany and published reviews and stories in the Vienna Welt am Abend. Starting in 1950, he worked as a reporter for the Munich illustrated Quick in Europe and America.

He wrote a number of screenplays and novels, which have sold tens of millions of copies. Many of his novels were successfully filmed in the 1960s and 1970s. He won numerous prizes, including the Award of Excellence of the Society of Writers of the UN. Important issues in his novels are a fervent pacifism as well as the relativity of good and bad. Several novels are said to have a true background, possibly autobiographic.

According to his Swiss lawyer, Simmel died on 1 January 2009 in Lucerne, at 84 years of age. This date was the 99th birthday of "Thomas Lieven", the main character of "It can't always be caviar."

Awards and honors

1959 First prize in the competition playwright Mannheim 1981 Culture Award of German Freemasons (Lessing-Ring) 1984 Gold Medal of the City of Vienna 1992 Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class 1993 Hermann Kesten Prize 2004: Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria 2005 Merit Cross 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse) 2011 naming of Simmelgasse in Floridsdorf (the 21st district of Vienna)