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Willy Haas
Willy Haas
Willy Haas
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Willy Haas (7 June 1891 – 4 September 1973) was a German editor, film critic, and screenwriter. He wrote for 19 films between 1922 and 1933, and was a member of the jury at the 8th Berlin International Film Festival.[1]

Key Information

Biography

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Willy Haas was the son of a Jewish lawyer. He studied law himself, and at a young age joined a literary circle with his friends Franz Werfel, Paul Kornfeld and Johannes Urzidil. He had personal contacts with Franz Kafka and Max Brod. This circle, which met in Prague at the Café Arco, also included Ernst Polak, the husband of Milena Jesenská.

From 1911 to 1912 in Prague, the press of the Johann Gottfried Herder Association published the Herder-Blätter (Literary Journal of the Herder Association), whose editors were Willy Haas and Norbert Eisler. The journal published several essays by Haas. For the last two issues (# 4 and # 5), Otto Pick was involved.[2] The Herder-Blätter published the work of many literary authors for the first time.

After World War I Haas went to Berlin, where he did editorial work and also worked as a screenwriter and film critic. Together with Ernst Rowohlt, he founded the weekly Die literarische Welt in 1925.

Grave of Willy Haas and Herta Haas, Ohlsdorf Cemetery

When his apartment in Berlin was repeatedly searched in 1933, he emigrated to Prague, where he worked as a newspaper editor. The literary magazine Welt im Wort (World in the Word), founded by Haas in Prague, soon ceased publication for financial reasons. After the German occupation of Prague in 1939, he went first to Italy and from there to India, where he worked as a screenwriter for at least two Indian films by Mohan Bhavnani.[3][4] He also earned a salary as a censor for the British army in India. In 1948 he returned to Germany and lived in Hamburg. There he wrote for Die Welt and Welt am Sonntag, as well as for other magazines and newspapers.[5]

Haas was married three times: from 1921 to 1925 with the translator Jarmila Ambrozova, from 1925 to 1936 with Hanna Waldeck (who gave birth to their son in 1925), and from 1947 with Herta Doctor. Willy Haas and his wife Herta were buried in Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg.

Selected filmography

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References

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Willy Haas

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Willy Haas (7 June 1891 – 4 September 1973) was a Prague-born German-Jewish literary critic, editor, screenwriter, and journalist known for his influential contributions to Weimar-era cultural life and German-language film criticism. Born in 1891 in Prague to a Jewish family, Haas belonged to the city's vibrant German-speaking literary circle that included figures such as Franz Kafka, Franz Werfel, Max Brod, and Paul Kornfeld. He began publishing early, contributing to the short-lived but significant Herder-Blätter while still a student, and served as an officer during World War I. After the war, he relocated to Berlin, where he established himself as a prominent film critic—one of the first in the German-speaking world—wrote screenplays, and published essays on literature and culture. In 1925, he co-founded and edited the weekly Die literarische Welt with Ernst Rowohlt, which became one of the most important intellectual journals of the Weimar Republic, featuring major authors and sparking significant literary debates until 1933. Forced to sell his journal under Nazi pressure in 1933, Haas returned to Prague and briefly attempted to continue similar work with Die Welt im Wort. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, he fled in 1939 to Bombay, India, where he worked as a screenwriter for Bhavnani Productions, contributing to early Hindi films including the 1940 adaptation Jhoothi Sharm (Naked Truth). Following the war, he returned to Germany in 1948 and joined the editorial staff of the newspaper Die Welt in Hamburg, establishing himself as one of postwar Germany's leading critics and essayists. He authored several notable books, including his autobiography Die literarische Welt (1957), studies of Bertolt Brecht (1958) and Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1964), and a work on the Belle Époque (1967). Haas died in Hamburg on 4 September 1973.

Early Life

Prague Background and Education

Willy Haas was born on 7 June 1891 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic), into a German-Jewish family. He was the son of a German-speaking Jewish lawyer. Growing up in Prague as part of its vibrant German-speaking Jewish community, Haas was exposed to a culturally rich environment that fostered intellectual and literary engagement among young German-Jewish writers. Haas studied law in Prague but did not pursue a professional career in the field. He developed an abiding interest in myth and mysticism during this period. While still at school, he formed early friendships with figures such as Franz Kafka, Max Brod, and Franz Werfel. During World War I, Haas served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army.

Literary Circle and Early Activities

Willy Haas formed close friendships with Franz Kafka, Max Brod, and Franz Werfel while still at school in Prague, becoming a central figure in the city's vibrant German-Jewish literary circle. He co-edited the short-lived magazine Herder-Blätter with Otto Pick, which served as the organ of this circle and was sponsored by the Herder-Verein, a cultural society established by the Prague branch of B'nai B'rith and named after the eighteenth-century writer Johann Gottfried Herder. Due to limited funds, the journal appeared only four times—in April 1911, February 1912, May 1912, and October 1912—yet it published works by notable young writers including Max Brod, Franz Kafka, Franz Werfel, Max Mell, Franz Blei, and Ernst Blass. Haas deeply admired the Viennese poet and dramatist Hugo von Hofmannsthal and arranged for him to deliver a reading in Prague in 1912 under the auspices of the Herder-Verein, an event recorded in Kafka's diary. Through his editorial work and organizational efforts, Haas exerted an animating influence in these literary circles, as he later reflected in his autobiography Die literarische Welt (1957), which offers a key account of Prague's literary milieus during those years. In 1952, he edited Kafka's letters to Milena Jesenská for publication.

Career in Weimar Germany

Move to Berlin and Journalism

After serving as an officer in World War I, Willy Haas moved to Berlin, where he pursued a career in journalism and established himself as a prominent literary and cultural critic in the Weimar Republic's vibrant intellectual scene. He quickly became part of Berlin's literary circles, contributing to the city's dynamic cultural discourse through his writings. In Berlin, Haas wrote critical essays, film reviews, and cultural commentary that engaged with the deeper intellectual and artistic problems of the period. He entered the film business as a critic, producing reviews that reflected his involvement in the era's growing discourse on cinema. His work positioned him as one of the most influential literary and cultural critics in Weimar Germany, known for insightful analyses of contemporary literary and cultural life. Essays from this Berlin period, including pieces on figures such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal, were later collected in his volume Gestalten der Zeit (1930). Haas's contributions helped animate the Weimar intellectual milieu, where he was recognized for his role in shaping discussions on literature and culture.

Editorship of Die literarische Welt

In 1925 Willy Haas became editor of Die literarische Welt, a weekly literary journal published by Ernst Rowohlt Verlag in Berlin, with its first issue appearing on October 9, 1925. He founded the publication together with Ernst Rowohlt and shaped its direction during the Weimar Republic's vibrant cultural scene. Under Haas's leadership until 1933, Die literarische Welt developed into one of the most widely read literary publications of the Weimar era. It earned recognition as probably the most important literary weekly of the Weimar Republic and as one of the period's foremost intellectual platforms. Through his editorial stewardship, Haas contributed substantially to German literary culture by establishing the journal as a central venue for critical discourse and exchange among writers and intellectuals. In his 1957 autobiography titled Die literarische Welt, Haas reflected on his experiences during this influential editorial period.

Film Criticism and Screenwriting

Willy Haas established himself as a prominent film critic in Weimar Germany, contributing to the influential trade journal Film-Kurier, where he offered reviews and commentary on contemporary films. Considered one of the first avant-garde film critics of the era, he advocated a practical, empirically grounded approach to criticism, drawing from his own industry experience to emphasize production realities and technical craftsmanship while critiquing overly abstract or moralistic literary perspectives on cinema. Alongside his critical work, Haas pursued a significant career as a screenwriter, providing scripts, scenarios, stories, and manuscripts for 19 films between 1922 and 1934, with most activity concentrated in the Weimar period before 1933. His credits include the uncredited scenario for G.W. Pabst's The Joyless Street (Die freudlose Gasse, 1925), the story and scenario for Dancing Vienna (Das tanzende Wien, 1927), writing credit for Die Weber (The Weavers, 1927), the manuscript for Thérèse Raquin (1928), and writing credit for Napoleon auf St. Helena (1929). These contributions highlight his versatility in roles ranging from original story development to detailed scenario and treatment work within German cinema of the time.

Exile and Work in India

Flight from Nazi Persecution

Following the Nazi seizure of power in Germany in January 1933, Willy Haas, a prominent Jewish literary editor and critic in Berlin, was forced to abandon his position and flee due to the intensifying persecution of Jews and political opponents. As a dedicated democrat who had edited the influential Weimar literary journal Die literarische Welt, he could no longer continue his work under the new regime and returned to his birthplace of Prague. In Prague, Haas worked as a newspaper editor from 1933 onward, resuming his journalistic activities amid the relative safety of pre-occupation Czechoslovakia. The German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 brought renewed peril, compelling Haas to flee once more to escape Nazi persecution and the immediate threat of the Gestapo. With crucial assistance from his friend, the composer Walter Kaufmann, who secured a job offer for him as a scriptwriter at Bhavnani Productions to facilitate obtaining an Indian visa, Haas escaped via Italy and arrived in Bombay later that year. This flight marked the beginning of his exile in India, aided by the job contract and support from the local Jewish Relief Association in Bombay to meet strict immigration requirements.

Screenwriting in Bombay

Willy Haas arrived in Bombay in 1939 and was immediately hired as a scenarist by film director Mohan Bhavnani for the newly established Bhavnani Productions, where he began writing screenplays for Hindi films. His debut screenplay was for the company's first production, Jhoothi Sharm (also released as Naked Truth), which premiered in March 1940 as an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts that centered on the social problem of venereal disease. The film was promoted as an educative "social" picture intended to address a pressing health issue openly, earning praise from the Times of India as a courageous and commendable effort to draw attention to a "grievous cancer" in society. It achieved commercial success in Bombay theaters. To align with the demands of Indian commercial cinema, Haas's original script underwent substantial changes during production, incorporating songs, dances, religious mantras, mythological elements, Indianized character names, and a conventional happy ending. Haas later expressed frustration with these alterations, describing the result as a "hotchpotch" that sacrificed narrative coherence and diluted the Ibsenian source material. Despite his dissatisfaction, the film represented his initial attempt to bridge European dramatic traditions with local audience expectations. Haas continued scripting for Bhavnani Productions, including an original screenplay for the religious drama Prem Nagar (released April 1941), which drew on a village legend and required him to travel to the princely state of Limbdi for research into rural Indian life. This film, too, was modified in production—most notably replacing a planned spiritual enlightenment ending with a happy family scene—but proved commercially successful. Sources indicate he wrote several additional Hindi screenplays during his time in Bombay, though specific titles beyond these examples remain incompletely documented. In parallel, Haas published the anthology Germans beyond Germany in 1942 and wrote essays exploring Indian culture and mythology. Throughout his Bombay period, Haas grappled with the challenge of reconciling the tight dramatic structure of European theater with the conventions of Indian popular cinema, which required extended runtimes, episodic narratives, numerous song-and-dance sequences (often religious), and mythological interventions to appeal to working-class audiences. After observing typical bazaar screenings, he recognized these elements as essential for commercial viability and sought to adapt accordingly, though he ultimately grew weary of forcing such accommodations.

Post-War Career in Germany

Return to Hamburg and Criticism

After his years in exile, Willy Haas returned to Germany after World War II and settled in Hamburg in 1948. There he established himself as a literary and drama critic, contributing to the cultural and intellectual life of post-war Germany. He dealt with profound problems of contemporary literary and cultural life and became one of the leading critics and essayists of the era. In 1958, Haas served as a member of the international jury at the 8th Berlin International Film Festival, reflecting his continued engagement with film criticism alongside his literary work. This role underscored his enduring influence in German cultural circles.

Later Publications and Contributions

After returning to Germany after World War II, Willy Haas settled in Hamburg and worked as a literary and drama critic, including for the newspaper Die Welt. In this capacity, he contributed to the cultural reconstruction of post-war Germany through his reviews and commentary on literature and theater. In 1952, Haas edited the first edition of Franz Kafka's letters to Milena Jesenská, a significant contribution that drew on his early friendship with Kafka and helped introduce this important correspondence to readers. His autobiography, Die literarische Welt, published in 1957, serves as an important account of the literary milieus in Prague and Berlin where he exerted considerable influence, while also reflecting his enduring interest in myth and mysticism. Haas followed this with a study of Bertolt Brecht in 1958, offering critical analysis of the playwright's work and legacy. In 1960, he published Fragmente meines Lebens, a collection of short essays that captured personal reflections and observations. Later, in 1967, correspondence with Hugo von Hofmannsthal appeared, shedding light on their intellectual exchange. Through these and other essays on literature, film, and culture, Haas remained an active voice in German intellectual circles until his later years.

Death and Legacy

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