Otto Zoff

Otto Zoff (9 April 1890 – 14 December 1963) was an Austrian author, script writer, dramaturge, journalist and "all-round Bohemian". For reasons of politics and race he spent much of his life abroad, including almost twenty years as an immigrant in the United States of America. During his lifetime he was noted, in particular, for his drama compositions and historical monographs, but fifty years after his death he had for most purposes fallen out of fashion.

Life Otto Friedländer-Zoff was born on 9 April 1890, in Prague, at that time a multi-cultural and intellectually dynamic city. His father, Otto Andreas Zoff, who had served time in prison before he married, When the boy was aged 2 the family relocated to Sankt Pölten, the first substantial town along the main railway line from Vienna travelling west. Shortly afterwards they moved again, this time to Hainfeld, a much smaller town to the southwest of Vienna. It was in Hainfeld that Otto Zoff's younger sister, Marianne Zoff (who later became the first wife of Bertolt Brecht) was born.

In 1909, he enrolled at the University of Vienna where he studied the History of Arts and Literature. His teachers included Max Dvořák. He emerged with a doctorate in 1914. 1913 also saw the publication of his first novel, "Das Haus am Wege".

During the First World War Zoff moved to Berlin where he wrote for various newspapers and magazines, including the Berliner Tageblatt, the Berliner Börsen-Courier, Neue Rundschau, März and Wieland. Along with that, during 1916 and 1917, he was employed as an editor with the publisher S. Fischer Verlag. was born in 1938. Meanwhile, under circumstances that remain unclear, the ban against publishing Zoff's books had been lifted in Germany where his historical presentation "The Huguenots" appeared in 1937. During the late 1930s, Zoff ostentatiously turned his back on authorship, preferring to earn his living by playing roulette. He was joined in this enterprise by the (originally Viennese) archaeologist Guido Kaschnitz von Weinberg. At first they were still unable to visit Europe due to lack of cash. However, later in 1953 they were able to make the trip "because a rich friend gave us the money", as Liselotte wrote. In addition to work for German newspapers, at some point during the postwar years Otto Zoff worked as New York correspondent for the South West [German] broadcasting company. In the later 1950s he also experienced a moderate return to form with his writing, notably with his 1959 comedy "König Hirsch" ("King Stag"), adapted from a piece by Carlo Gozzi.

Zoff made his final visit to Germany in 1961 and stayed. He was now affected by the heart disease that would kill him. He died at Munich, on 14 December 1963, aged 73.