Talk:Louis de Wohl

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080304/wl_uk_afp/britaingermanyhungaryhistorywwii;_ylt=AimIX5IP6EfkD7Yvi19AbZdvaA8F

Declassifed British documents from the Second World War describe Louis de Wohl's work for SIS

--Steve (talk) 01:54, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

News Articles
Here's a subsection for news articles on Louis de Wohl considering his recent news coverage. Post 'em here if you're too busy to add info yourself! Mendaliv (talk) 22:12, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Two men with the same name? Not likely
I wish I had time to fix this but I don't. Three references at the bottom refer to a Louis de Wohl who was an astrologer in Germany but left to hoodwink the English. The second in the list refers to the Louis de Wohl who wrote Catholic novels; and when you check out the autobio, he says he was a novelist in Germany before he left with no reference to astrology. So, these two men ought to be split up unless somebody can establish that they are the same person. Freder1ck (talk) 04:47, 6 March 2008 (UTC)Freder1ck
 * OK. Maybe not obviously, but I would like to see a credible source that clearly links the two. Freder1ck (talk) 21:04, 8 March 2008 (UTC)Freder1ck
 * I found an obituary in the New York Times, June 4 1961. It states that he "wrote more than sixty books, mostly historical novels and fictionalized biographies, many of which became bestsellers". It specifically mentions several titles with Catholic themes, as well as his dealings with astrology during the war. It also states that he changed his name from Ludwig to Louis. Hexmaster (talk) 12:51, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Lectures in USA in 1941
In other sources I found mentionings of american lectures held by Louis de Wohl, just before Pearl Harbor (i.e. December 7, 1941). I haven't found any details of those. However, I did find that the Rosicrucian Fellowship on July 31, 1941, announced a lecture by Baron (sic) Louis de Wohl, "Eminent Novelist, just arrived from England", with the subject "Can Hitler Win the War?".

As for the two names, I've assumed that a Ludwig von Wohl wouldn't flag such a blatantly German name in England, instead frenchifying it. The "von" part I'd treat with as much caution as the supposed title. Hexmaster (talk) 11:04, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Some recollections about Louis de Wohl
Louis de Wohl was a cousin of my father's. My paternal grandmother was Olga Wohl. On rare occasions my uncle and I were in the same city and he invited me for dinner. At least once Louis de Wohl was also present. Because of that I skimmed his book about St. Thomas. I thought it was well written and seemed to reflect considerable knowledge of the circumstances of that time. He seemed to be a lively and cheerful person. He was extremely fat which made me think he was self-indulgent. The Wikipedia information confirms this. I am pretty sure he and his sister Lizl left Germany because he was of Jewish origin, at least on the Wohl side, rather than for a specifically political reason. I have not read or heard that he had been active in politics. Wikipedia is the only place where I saw him referred to as von Wohl. The German editions of his books, even those published when he was alive, all have him as de Wohl although I could not find a reference to any of his pre-WW2 books. In Germany, even long after the war, it was a punishable offense to put von before your name if you have not inherited the title or received it from royalty, and I doubt his branch of the Wohl family had received it; my grandmother certainly did not have a title of nobility. Although he is my only famous relative, I would take what he says about himself with a grain of salt. That would include his religious beliefs. No one else in my father's family was religious. Many middle-class Jews in Hungary converted to Christianity in the hope of avoiding persecution. Others thought this was unprincipled and did not convert. Converted or not, hardly any were religious. With the help of the Catholic church de Wohl could sell many times more books than he could have without it. That gave him ample reason to write what Wikipedia correctly describes as hagiography about revered Catholic personages and to profess to be a Catholic. Of course, I don't think he believed in astrology and horoscopes either during the earlier period when he eked out a living with that. I may be too cynical.

Peter Ungar, New Rochelle, NY         peterungar@yahoo.com  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.155.7.72 (talk) 18:14, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

First wife?
The 2008 AP story about de Wohl mentions a first (?) wife, Alexandra, who fled to Chile during the war. The Wikipedia article, as it is now, denies her very existence, stating "This could not be farer from the truth". It then originally went on to refer to his "real" wife Ruth Magdalena Lorch. (I altered that part.) But he only married Ms. Lorch in 1953, so he might as well have been married to another lady before, who may have died, or with whom his marriage may have been annulled. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything about Alexandra on the internet, besides the AP story. Is there a good de Wohl biography out there one may refer to? Lumendelumine (talk) 02:58, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

Some cleanup
I did some copy editing, including some reorganizing to put the discussion of writing in the section on writing and leave the bare bones of events and transitions in the Life section. There's a citation template on the mention of the visit by the Cardinal of Milan, which presumably should also be sourced to the autobiography. Question to resolve when someone with access to that book fixes that, who talked to him first, the Cardinal or the Pope, and when did these events occur? We should say at least whether it was during or after the war, if not specific dates. Bn (talk) 22:00, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Categories
The categories include him into various categories of Jews, yet the article doesn't mention at any point that he might have been Jewish. This needs urgent clarification. JFW &#124; T@lk  07:15, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Suggestions
A few things:

1. If Berlin is in Germany, why does it say he was Hungarian-born? 2. I think someone should add a picture of Louis de Wohl. My edits get reverted and criticized a lot, so I'm a little too shy to do stuff around here–can someone do this for me?

YoSoyUnHamster (talk) 19:24, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

More suggestions
I wonder if it wouldn't be useful to re-sort his titles by fiction and nonfiction? I am not sure I am the man for the job, as I have only recently discovered de Wohl, and am only now reading the first of his novels. A few seem obvious, but some others, not so much. rags (talk) 18:39, 14 June 2019 (UTC)
 * I have been bold, and added one title to the list of published titles, with the first edition's publ date, along with dates of publication of various titles which lacked dates. I have re-ordered the titles to reflect date of publication.  There seem to be more titles published in Spanish and Italian, but I hesitate to add any more, as books are sometimes published under different titles when translated.  I wonder if we should add that the OESSH was conferred on de Wohl by Pope Francis XXIII.  (according to GoogleBooks)  rags (talk) 20:45, 14 June 2019 (UTC)