Otfrid von Hanstein

Otfrid von Hanstein (1869–1959) was a German actor and writer. As a novelist, he was prolific in various genres; his best-known works in English-language translation are science fiction novels published in various magazines by Hugo Gernsback. John Clute describes von Hanstein's science fiction as "technophilic and space-oriented, crude but competent". E. F. Bleiler reports that his SF novels were suppressed by the Nazi government.

Translated works

The Hidden Colony (1924 as Die Farm des Verschollenen, Wonder Stories, January–March 1935, tr. Fletcher Pratt). Clute classifies the novel as Utopian; He also commented that "a closer reading reveals considerable ambivalence in Hanstein's vision. In the Year 8000 (1932, no published German-language original, Wonder Stories, July–September 1932, tr. Laurence Manning & Konrad Schmidt). Gernsback claimed that In the Year 8000 "was written exclusively for Wonder Stories", in response to American readers' enthusiasm for Utopia Island. Clute classified the story as dystopian. Bleiler found it "Much less pleasant than the other Hanstein stories, with some elements of early racism", as well as derivative of Thea von Harbou's Metropolis. He places the novel in the "sentimental stages of German Expressionism", and comments that "By now Hanstein has moved away from unrestrained enthusiasm for technology, and is working toward humane controls. As in Hanstein's other work, the background detail is more important than the plot or characterizations, which are clichéd."