Walter Arthur Berendsohn

Walter Arthur Berendsohn was born in 1884 in Hamburg

Berendsohn was born in Hamburg on 10 September 1884. He studied German studies, Scandinavian studies and philosophy at universities in Berlin, Freiburg, Munich and Kiel. He earned his doctorate at Kiel University in 1911.

After his habilitation he became a professor at the University of Hamburg, where he taught German literature and Scandinavian studies. He also lectured for the Hamburg Free Religious Community and the German Monist League. He was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and of the German League for Human Rights.

In 1933 Nazi law removed Jews, including Berendsohn, from government jobs. He later lost his German citizenship and his property, and fled to Denmark. During the rescue of the Danish Jews he moved on to Sweden.

In Stockholm he became a guest professor at Stockholm University and worked for decades at its German Studies Institute. His book Die humanistische Front of 1939 is seen as the start of the study of German exile literature. He nominated Nelly Sachs for the Nobel Prize in Literature and Willy Brandt for the Nobel Peace Prize, and both won.

He lived in Stockholm until his death on 30 January 1984. In 2001 a Hamburg research center for German exile literature was renamed after him.