Curt Martin Riess

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Curt Martin Riess (June 21, 1902 – May 13, 1993) was a German journalist and writer.

Reiss was born of Jewish-German origins in Wurzburg, Germany, and later fled in 1933 to Paris, France not long after Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1933.[1] Riess received his higher education in Berlin, Munich, Heidelberg, Zurich and Paris, with an emphasis on literature and economics.[2]

Career[edit]

In the 1920s, he first dabbled in sports journalism, and then began to crisscross Europe to report for the Berlin press, including a role as a film and theatre critic.

A French newspaper, Paris-Soir, sent him in 1934 to the United States as a foreign correspondent.[3] Drafted by the U.S. Navy until his transfer into the U.S. Army, Reiss was assigned as a war correspondent in Europe.

After the war he worked as a freelance writer in New York, later returned to Germany, and finally relocated to Switzerland in 1952. Bilingual and a prolific writer, he produced over 100 books in English and German, along with newspaper and magazine articles, biographies, novels and screenplays.[3]

Riess attracted attention in the United States in the 1930s and during World War II with his books and widely syndicated reporting about Hitler's Germany. Along with his duty as a war correspondent, some have claimed that Riess also engaged in the surveillance of Nazi activities, serving as a spy for the United States military. He returned to Germany after the defeat of Hitler in 1945.

Death[edit]

Reiss died in Scheuren bei Forch, Switzerland on May 19, 1993 at the age of 90.[4] The cause of death was undisclosed.

Publications[edit]

  • Total Espionage (P.G. Putnam's Sons, 1941)
  • Underground Europe (Dial Press, 1942)
  • The Self-Betrayed—The Glory and Doom of the German Generals (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1942)
  • The Invasion of Germany (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1943)
  • The Nazis Go Underground (Doubleday, 1944)
  • Joseph Goebbels, (Doubleday & Company, 1948)
  • The Berlin Story (Dial Press, 1952)
  • Joseph Goebbels Abridged, Ballantine Books, New York, November 1960
  • Underground Europe (Dial Press, 1972)

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Curt Riess". geni_family_tree.
  2. ^ Wolfgang Saxon, “Curt Riess, Author And Journalist, 90; Expert on Nazi Era,” New York Times, May 21, 1993
  3. ^ a b “Curt Riess, Hitler Fugitive and U.S., German, Swiss Author, Dead at 90,” Associated Press, May 19, 1993
  4. ^ “Obituary: Curt Martin Riess,” Independent, May 21, 1993