Vicki Baum 1888 – 1960

Hedwig (Vicki) Baum is most known for her novel, Menschen im Hotel (1929) which was made into a classic film, Grand Hotel. The film won the Academy Award in the United States in 1931.

Baum was born on January 24, 1888 to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria. She was educated at the Vienna Conservatory of music and played harp professionally for several years. Later she worked as a journalist for the magazines, Die Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, Die Dame and Uhu.

Ms. Baum began writing popular novels and would publish 37 during her lifetime, many of which became best sellers and 10 of them were made into movies in Hollywood. She took the name Vicki as a pen name with her first novel, Frühe Schatten, in 1919. She worked her novel, Menschen im Hotel, into a play which was produced in 1930 in Berlin. The play was then produced on Broadway and in 1931 as the film, Grand Hotel. The original setting of the novel was in a Berlin hotel during the twenties.

She immigrated to the United States in 1932. Her books and films would be banned in Germany during the Third Reich. Baum continued to write popular novels in the United States and after the war her work became popular again in Europe. Many of her novels remain available and popular both in Europe and in the U.S.A. Vicki Baum died in Los Angeles in 1960.

Vicky Baum, eigentlich Hedwig Baum, wurde am 24. Januar 1888 in Wien geboren und starb am 29. August 1960 in Hollywood. Sie studierte Musik, begann jedoch schon in ihrer frühen Jugend zu schreiben. Baum gewann Preise für ihre Kurzgeschichten, aber ihre Literaturkarriere begann nur allmählich. Nach ihrem Umzug nach Berlin arbeitete sie an der “Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung”. Ihr erster Roman “Menschen im Hotel” erschien in dieser Zeitschrift und erlangte großen Erfolg in Deutschland. Er erschien am Broadway in der Übersetzung als “Grand Hotel”. Von 1926 bis 1931 arbeitete sie als Redakteurin für die Zeitschrift “Uhu”. Nach der Arbeit schrieb sie Romane bis spät in die Nacht, während ihr Mann arbeitete und die Kinder schliefen. Nach ihrem Erfolg in New York, zog sie in die USA und wurde Drehbuchautorin in Hollywood. Vicky Baum ging, im Gegensatz zu den meisten Juden, freiwillig in die USA. Baum schrieb unter anderem die Romane “Men never know”, “Grand Opera”, “Hotel Berlin `43” and “Danger from Deer”.