Franz Carl Weiskopf

Franz Carl Weiskopf (3 April 1900 in Prague – 14 September 1955) was a German-speaking writer. Born in Prague, then part of Austria-Hungary, he was often referred to as F. C. Weiskopf, he also used the pseudonyms Petr Buk, Pierre Buk and F. W. L. Kovacs. He died in Berlin in 1955.

Life
Weiskopf was the son of a German banker who was Jewish and a Czech mother. He studied at a German school in Prague and then went to university in his hometown to study Germanistik and history from 1919–1923. He traveled to the Soviet Union in 1926 and in 1928 moved to Berlin where he became editor of the Berlin am Morgen newspaper. He married Grete Bernheim. He was a member in good standing of the Confederation of Proletarian Revolutionary Writers (German: Bund proletarisch-revolutionärer Schriftsteller) and participated in a conference in 1930 with Anna Seghers in Charkow in the Soviet Union.

After the takeover by the Nazis in 1933 Weiskopf returned to Prague, where he was editor of the Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung. When Czechoslovakia fell to the invading Germans in October 1938, the newspaper was forced to shut down, and Weiskopf fled to Paris. From there, he fled to the United States in April 1939, with the help of the League of American Writers. He survived the war in New York.

After the end of the war, Weiskopf was in the diplomatic service of Czechoslovakia and worked, first at an Embassy in Washington DC, 1949 to 1950 as ambassador to Stockholm, and from 1950 to 1952 as ambassador to Beijing. In 1952 he returned to Prague, but moved in 1953 to East Berlin. In the last years of his life he was a board member of the Deutscher Schriftstellerverband, and published the magazine New German Literature (German: Neue Deutsche Literatur) together with Willi Bredel and became member of PEN.

F.C. Weiskopf wrote novels, short stories, stories, anecdotes, poetry and essays. His work was always realistic, stylistically far above the average for other authors of the Socialist realism. His narrative works were mostly set in the middle of Czechoslovakia and describe the path of solidarity of citizens and workers since the First World War.

His wife initiated a Weiskopf named Prize, which has been awarded since 1956 for contribution to the preservation of the German language.

F.C. Weiskopf and his wife are buried in Berlin's Friedrichsfelde Cemetery.

Editorials

 * Januartage, Prag-Karlin 1926
 * Denise Leblond-Zola: Zola, Berlin 1932
 * Hundred towers, New York 1945
 * Kisch-Kalender, Berlin 1955

Translations

 * Tschechische Lieder, Berlin 1925
 * Das Herz - ein Schild, London 1937
 * Gesang der gelben Erde, Berlin 1951
 * Chien Tien: Des Tien Tschien Lied vom Karren, Berlin 1953
 * Max Švabinský: Schmetterlingszeit, Prag 1954

Films

 * 1957: Lissy - Director: Konrad Wolf
 * 1977: Abschied vom Frieden - Director: Hans-Joachim Kasprzik