Peter von Mendelssohn

Peter von Mendelssohn (1908–1982) was a German writer and historian. Of Jewish heritage he was forced to leave Germany following the Nazi Party's rise to power in 1933. He became a prominent member of the exile community, along with figures such as Thomas Mann. In 1936 settled in Britain where he became a naturalised subject. His 1932 novel Schmerzliches Arkadien was adapted into a 1955 film Marianne of My Youth.

After the Second World War he served as a press officer with the Allied Control Council in Düsseldorf. He subsequently returned to live in Munich in 1970, where he died twelve years later. He was married to fellow exile and writer Hilde Spiel.