Richard Katz (writer)


Richard Katz, was a German journalist, travel writer, and essayist from Bohemia. While writing both grandiose and humble prose, his style is consistently imbued with a sense of humor, humility and love for all things living.

Early years

Richard Katz was born on November 21, 1888, in Prague, Austria-Hungary. His family was an ethnic minority of Sudeten Germans living in the Sudetenland.
After graduation, Katz studied law at [Karl-Ferdinands-Universität|The Ethnic Germans|German University in Prague]. During his studies, he wrote for a variety of newspapers and magazines. Upon graduation, he began work with the now defunct Vossische Zeitung newspaper in their Prague office. During this placement, he spent a year in East Asia working as a traveling reporter.

Career in journalism

After the First World War, Katz moved to Leipzig and in 1924 he became director of the Leipzig Publishing Company, a position he held for two years. In the years between 1928 and 1930, he was a clerk for the Ullstein publishing house in Berlin. While working in this position, Katz founded the Green Post, a periodical which very quickly reached a circulation of over one million. The financial success allowed Katz to establish himself as an independent writer, giving him the freedom to travel the world while writing of his experiences.

Travel and publication

During the period between 1925 and his death, Katz published nearly thirty-five volumes, mostly personally written journalistic travel books. In the late twenties, his five-book series Die Weite Weite Welt emerged, including Ein Bummel um die Welt, Funkelnder Ferner Osten, Heitere Tage mit braunen Menschen, Schnapps Kokain und Lamas, Ernte. His other areas of interests were animals – specifically dogs – and gardening. Some of his most refreshing works center around the personalities of dogs, and the methods one must employ to be a successful gardener.
In 1933, Katz emigrated to Switzerland. In 1941, he moved to Brazil obtaining citizenship there. In 1956 he returned to Switzerland where he died in 1968 living above Locarno.

Selected works

Works translated into English

  • Ein Bummel um die Welt
  • Funkelnder Ferner Osten
  • Einsames Leben

Untranslated German travel books

  • Heitere Tage mit braunen Menschen
  • Zickzack durch Südamerika
  • Ernte
  • Die Weltreise in der Johannisnacht
  • Mein Inselbuch – erste Erlebnisse in Brasilien
  • Seltsame Fahrten in Brasilien
  • Reisefieber
  • Begegnungen in Rio
  • Auf dem Amazones
  • Per Hills schwerster Fall – Ein ernsthafter Kriminalroman
  • Allerhand aus fernem Land
  • Wandernde Welt
  • Gruss aus der Hängematte

Stories regarding domestic matters

  • Kleinode der Natur
  • Nur Tiere. Vier Geschichten
  • Von Hund zu Hund
  • Übern Gartenhag
  • Steckenpferde

Political work

  • Drei Gesichter Luzifers. Lärm, Maschinen, Geschäft ''''

Autobiographical works

  • Leid in der Stadt
  • Einsames Leben

Literature

  • Jeroen Dewulf: Brasilien mit Brüchen. Schweizer unter dem Kreuz des Südens, Zürich: NZZ Verlag 2007.