Baum, Vicki (1888–1960)

German-born writer, who was known particularly for her novel Grand Hotel. Born Victoria Baum on January 24, 1888, in Vienna, Austria; died in Hollywood, California, on August 29, 1960; daughter of Mathilde Donat and Hermann Baum; married Max Prels, in 1906 (divorced, c. 1912); married Richard Lert (a conductor), July 17, 1916; children: (second marriage) two sons, Wolfgang and Peter.

After publishing numerous short stories, wrote Der Weg (The Way, 1925); signed a contract with Ullstein Publishers and began writing for the mass market (1926); published novel stud. chem. Helene Willfüer (Chemistry Student Helene Willfüer) to great success (1928); published most famous book Menschen im Hotel (Grand Hotel, 1930); fled to U.S. with family because of growing anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany (1931); published Liebe und Tod auf Bali (Tale of Bali, 1937); published Hotel Shanghai (1939); switched to writing exclusively in English (1940) and wrote novel The Ship and the Shore (1941); published Marion Alive (1942); published The Weeping Wood about a Brazilian rubber plantation (1943), followed by Hotel Berlin '43 (1944), Mortgage on Life (1946), and Headless Angel (1948); attempted to write more complex plots, producing The Mustard Seed (1953), followed by Written on Water (1956), and Theme for Ballet (1958), her last novel.

Selected writings:

Frühe Schatten: Das Ende einer Kindheit (Berlin: Reiss, 1914); Der Eingang zur Bühne (Berlin: Ullstein, 1920, published in English as Once in Vienna, London: Bles, 1943); Schlosstheater (Berlin: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1921); Die Tänze der Ina Raffay: Ein Leben (Berlin: Ullstein, 1921); Die andern Tage (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1922); Bubenreise: Eine Erzählung für junge Menschen (Berlin: Ullstein, 1923); Die Welt ohne Sünde: Roman einer Minute (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1923); Ulle, der Zwerg (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1923); Der Weg (Berlin: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1925); Miniaturen (Berlin: Weltgeist-Bücher, 1926); Tanzpause (Stuttgart: Fleischhauer & Spohn, 1926); Feme: Bussfahrt einer verirrten Jugend (Berlin: Ullstein, 1927, published in America as Secret Sentence, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1932); Hell in Frauensee (Berlin: Ullstein, 1927, published in English as Martin's Summer, NY: Cosmopolitan, 1931); stud. chem. Helene Willfüer (Berlin: Ullstein, 1928, published in English as Helene, London: Bles, 1932); Halloh, wer fängt Flip und Flap? Oder (Berlin: Arcadia, 1929); Menschen im Hotel: Ein Kolportageroman mit Hintergründen (Berlin: Ullstein, 1929, published in English as Grand Hotel, London: Bles, 1930; NY: Doubleday, 1931); Zwischenfall in Lohwinckel (Berlin: Ullstein, 1930, published in London as Results of an Accident, Bles, 1930, and in America as And Life Goes On, NY: Doubleday, 1931); Pariser Platz 13 (Vienna & Berlin: Marton, 1930); Das Leben ohne Geheimnis (Berlin: Ullstein, 1932, published in English as Falling Star, London: Bles, 1934); Das grosse Einmaleins (Amsterdam: Querido, 1935, published in America as Men Never Know, NY: Doubleday, 1935, and in Germany as Rendez-vous in Paris, Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1951); Die Karriere der Doris Hart (Amsterdam: Querido, 1936, published in English as Sing, Sister, Sing, London: Bles, 1936); Liebe und Tod auf Bali (Amsterdam: Querido, 1937, nonfiction published in English as Tale of Bali, London: Bles, 1937); Der grosse Ausverkauf (Amsterdam: Querido, 1937, published in London as Central Stories, Bles, 1940); Hotel Shanghai (Amsterdam: Querido, 1939, published in America as Shanghai '37, NY: Doubleday, 1939, and in London as Nanking Road, Bles, 1939); Die grosse Pause (Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer, 1941, published in London as Grand Opera, Bles, 1940); The Christmas Carp (NY: Doubleday, 1941); The Ship and the Shore (NY: Doubleday, 1941); Marion Alive (NY: Doubleday, 1942); The Weeping Wood (NY: Doubleday, 1943); Hotel Berlin '43 (NY: Doubleday, 1945); Mortgage on Life (NY: Doubleday, 1946); Headless Angel (Doubleday, 1948); Danger from Deer (Doubleday, 1951); The Mustard Seed (Doubleday, 1951); Written on Water (Doubleday, 1956); Theme for Ballet (Doubleday, 1958); It Was All Quite Different: The Memoirs of Vicki Baum (NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1964).

Vicki Baum, the author of Grand Hotel, was a popular writer by design. Her works were carefully crafted for the mass audience, first in Germany, then America. Her career is all the more remarkable because she was a bestselling

author in German before writing in English. When Baum began writing in the 1920s, mass distribution, intense advertising, and promotional campaigns were in their infancy. But she quickly adapted to these techniques, opening new opportunities for those who followed.

Vicki Baum was born into a middle-class, assimilated Jewish Viennese family on January 24, 1888. Her childhood was difficult. Her father Hermann was a tyrannical figure, while her mother Mathilde suffered from manic depression and was eventually institutionalized. Mathilde had some influence on her daughter, however, insisting that she plan for a career at an early age, an unusual notion for the late 19th-century. At age eight, Vicki began studying the harp, attending the Vienna Conservatory from 1904 until 1910. Musically talented, she performed with leading Viennese orchestras as a teenager. Fascinated by words as well as musical expression throughout her childhood and adolescence, Baum wrote short stories, a passion which eventually dominated her life.

I thought, lived, talked, felt the same as most people did…. I had shared their experiences, and their memories were mine, too…. For once they found in my books what even the most choosy reader likes best, whether he knows it or not: self-identification.

—Vicki Baum

In 1906, 18-year-old Baum married Max Prels, possibly in an attempt to escape her father. For the duration of this brief first marriage, she wrote several short stories, put her husband's name on them, and sold them to a German magazine. Divorcing Prels, Baum left Vienna in 1912 to take a position in Germany with the Darmstadt municipal orchestra where she also taught at the musical conservatory. Two years later, her first novel appeared, Frühe Schatten (Early Shadows), but it had little impact on readers. While in Darmstadt, she fell in love with Richard Lert, who conducted the symphony orchestra. Married on July 17, 1916, the newlyweds soon moved to Kiel where Lert had obtained another position. Two sons, Wolfgang and Peter, were born soon after. Since Lert's earning ability was precarious at best, Baum decided to contribute to the family finances by writing.

Baum longed to be appreciated as a serious writer. From 1923 to 1925, she worked diligently, perfecting her craft, then entered and won a literary contest judged by Thomas Mann. When it did not bring the critical attention she craved, Baum sought commercial success. In 1926, she accepted a fulltime position with Ullstein, joining the publisher's literary factory. Ullstein's was one of the first publishers to develop what has become the norm in book marketing. Books were created for mass consumption, widely advertised, and sold to a broad audience. Ullstein did not wait for critics to sell their books; instead, the publisher created a climate which sold its products. The turning point in Baum's career came with the serialization of stud. chem. Helene Willfüer (Chemistry Student Helene Willfüer) which appeared in 1928 in Ullstein's weekly magazine.

In stud. chem. Helene Willfüer, Baum portrays a woman who not only seeks personal happiness but a career in a male-dominated field, a subject fairly new to readers. By the 1920s, women's role had undergone major changes. During World War I, many women worked in factories, assuming male jobs to help the war effort. Corsets, long skirts, and petticoats had been exchanged for loose tunics, short skirts, and pants. Society idolized sports heroines while women aviators dominated the media as well. An increasing number of women attended universities, and they demanded new opportunities.

In the novel, Helene Willfüer is a chemistry student who falls in love and becomes pregnant. At first, she decides to have an abortion, but her plan is thwarted when a police raid closes the "clinic." Desperate, Helene puts her fate in the hands of the baby's father Rainer, who feels a double suicide is the best way to end the shame brought on by the pregnancy. He kills himself, but Helene does not. Determined to triumph over social pressure, she finishes her doctorate, bears a son, and achieves professional success. But Helene feels her life is empty and eventually marries and abandons her career. Though the book's ending was traditional, Baum's novel was revolutionary. Issues like abortion, single parenthood, suicide, and women's careers were rarely dealt with, especially in the popular press. It was a huge success.

In 1930, Vicki Baum's book Menschen im Hotel (Grand Hotel) was published. A huge advertising campaign preceded the novel's release and a serialized version of Grand Hotel ran in the Berliner Illustrirte. Baum produced a stage version of the book which premiered in Berlin in January 1930 and eventually played throughout the world, including a 444-night run on Broadway with Eugenie Leontovitch (Greta Garbo would replace Leontovitch part in the film version). Writes Lynda J. King :

With Menschen im Hotel Baum was responsible for a new sub-genre of the novel; the hotel novel, in which the hotel functions as a central location where unrelated individuals of all classes and social groups come together and interact. At the end, they go their separate ways, and new guests arrive. As clichéd as this formula seems today after countless imitations in novels and films, Baum's version was fresh and new in 1929…. Baum's Grand Hotel represents modern society in which isolated and alienated individuals come together, interact, and part again without changing or affecting the social structure itself. The characters have little control over the events which take place in the hotel and which affect their lives…. Baum did not intend to provide readers with solutions or models for changing the social ills she depicted in Menschen im Hotel. Instead she combined melodrama, sensationalism, and an undercurrent of pessimism with a sophisticated style built on fast action, shifting perspectives, and visual imagery to create a complex literary product.

With the publication of Grand Hotel, Vicki Baum was no longer a minor author. Her newly won fame was not without consequences, however; critics refused to accept her as a serious writer, and many attacked her portrayal of Helene Willfüer. Increasingly, Baum felt threatened. Since she was Jewish, the growth of Nazi power made her highly vulnerable. Her depictions of German women did not coincide with Hitler's notion of a Germany where women cooked and cleaned, attended church, and bore Aryan children. In 1932, she decided to immigrate to the United States.

Baum was familiar with America. In April 1931, she had participated in Doubleday's massive promotional campaign for Grand Hotel and had also negotiated contracts for future novels and screenplays. Though initially settled in New York, Baum felt opportunities for future screenplays were to be found on the West Coast, so the family moved to Hollywood, where she signed a longterm contract with MGM. She would also work for Paramount, Republic, Universal, RKO, 20th Century-Fox, and Warner Bros. Although most writers find it impossible to establish themselves in a foreign country, Baum flourished in America. Along with Garbo, Joan Crawford , Wallace Beery, and John and Lionel Barrymore had starred in the 1932 film version of Grand Hotel, an MGM blockbuster that had won an Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year and had inaugurated the genre of multistar films; thus, Baum started her screenwriting career with impressive credentials. (The movie was remade as Weekend at the Waldorf in 1945, starring Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner , and Walter Pidgeon. In 1959, A West German production using the original title Menschen im Hotel, starred Michele Morgan, Sonja Ziemann , and O.W. Fischer.)

When her novel, Tale of Bali (Liebe und Tod auf Bali), was published in 1937, Baum went on tour to promote it, as well as her other works. An entertaining speaker, she was soon a hit on the ladies' luncheon circuit. In consequence, sales of her books soared. Kenneth McCormick, her editor at Doubleday, recalled one day in the life of a touring author:

She was a wow. She was selling Grand Hotel…. By this time she was a roaring hit. I remember when she got to Minneapolis. She'd begun to get bored with the routine and overenthusiastic ladies and chicken and peas and the speech she gave and everything. But she was a good sport, and she did it. Afterward the ladies came crowding up and said, "You're so wonderful!" Finally there was a little lady standing there who said, "Miss Baum, my son writes stories." Vicki said, "Oh, isn't that nice." Then she thought, "Maybe I'd better find out who …" and she said, "What is your name?" The lady said, "My name is Hemingway." Vicki said, "Are you Ernest Hemingway's mother?" … Mrs. Hemingway turned to the women and said, "You see, Miss Baum has heard of my son."

For several years, Baum continued to write in German, though her works were translated into English as well as several other languages. When the Nazis banned her books in Germany, she ceased writing in her native tongue. By the early 1940s, all her works appeared in English. Wrote McCormick: "She overcame some terrible handicaps—the war, being Jewish and being in Germany, and being a mother with two small children." Baum became fluent enough in English to write The Ship and the Shore in 1941. When translations of her earlier books like stud. chem. Helene Willfüer did not sell well in America, she switched to her successful Grand Hotel plot: Hotel Shanghai (1939), Marion Alive (1942) and Hotel Berlin '43 (1944) all used the literary device she had created. But she tired of the genre, so, in 1943, she wrote a different kind of novel. The Weeping Wood, a story about rubber plantations in Brazil, resulted and received generally good reviews.

Vicki Baum's books provided a substantial income, allowing the family to settle comfortably in California. Her husband Richard Lert became conductor of the Pasadena Symphony, a position he held for many years. Sons Wolfgang

and Peter quickly adjusted to the West Coast way of life. Jeanette Lowe described the household: "It … [is] a menage which runs like clockwork, meals for the week planned Saturday morning, and served on the dot; a time for swimming, practicing, writing, and studying." After several years of moving from apartment to apartment and house to house, the couple built a contemporary home high on a hillside. A library filled with books, a terrace overlooking the hillside, and the grand piano in the living room blended the old world with the new. Their home was a refuge for family and friends, a place where Viennese pastries and California wine were often served to guests on the terrace. As increasing numbers of impoverished Central European refugees arrived in California, Baum was generous with her financial and moral support.

With the passage of time, Vicki Baum grew increasingly tired of being, as she noted, "the woman who wrote Grand Hotel." She felt intense advertising and promotional campaigns degraded her work. She decided to write a work of "good literature" and possibly publish it under a pseudonym so as to escape the straight jacket in which she had been placed. In 1953, The Mustard Seed appeared. It is the story of a faith healer named Giano Benedetto who has come to Los Angeles from a remote mountain region in Italy. Benedetto attempts to rehabilitate his brother who suffers from mental problems. A simple man, Benedetto becomes an overnight sensation in California and soon is giving advice to people overwhelmed by modern life. Unwittingly, Benedetto becomes involved in a murder, though eventually his innocence is proven. Impotence, anxiety, homosexuality, drug addiction, and alcoholism are only a few of the topics Baum took on in the novel. Some have noted that "Giano and Vicki Baum seem to long for escape," perhaps a commentary on Baum's growing disgust with commercial writing. Written on Water (1956), Theme for Ballet (1958), and It Was All Quite Different: The Memoirs of Vicki Baum (1964) were her final works. None of them followed the formulas which had made her such a popular writer.

Continuing a process which began with the invention of the printing press, writing has increasingly reflected mass culture. The debate continues whether literature can reflect popular taste. Yet the public is interested in reading novels which deal with the questions of everyday life in a modern technological society. Baum sensed this, and she successfully wrote about women's liberation, abortion, drug use, and isolation in terms millions could understand. But she was torn between being a "literary writer" and a "people's writer," a dilemma she never resolved. Vicki Baum described herself as "a first-rate second-rate author."

sources:

Atkinson, J. Brooks. "The Play: Grand Hotel," in The New York Times. November 14, 1930.

Baum, Vicki. "I Discover America," in Good Housekeeping. Vol. 94, no. 7. July 1932, pp. 30–31, 196–199.

Bell, Robert F. "Depicting the Host Country: Vicki Baum's The Mustard Seed," in Kulturelle Wechselbeziehungen im Exil—Exile Across Cultures. Edited by Helmut F. Pfanner. Bonn: Bouvier Verlag Herbert Grundmann, 1986, pp. 139–150.

Heilbut, Anthony. Exiled in Paradise: German Refugee Artists and Intellectuals in America from the 1930s to the Present. Boston: Beacon Press, 1983.

King, Lynda J. Best-Sellers By Design: Vicki Baum and the House of Ullstein. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1988.

——. "The Image of Fame: Vicki Baum in Weimar Germany," in The German Quarterly. Vol 58, no. 3. Summer 1985, pp. 375–393.

——. "The Woman Question and Politics in Austrian Interwar Literature," in German Studies Review. Vol. vi, no. 1. February 1983, pp. 75–100.

Lowe, Jeanette. "Translation from the German," in Arts and Decoration. Vol. 41, no. 5, September 1934, pp. 27–29.

"Miss Vicki Baum, Author of 'Grand Hotel,'" in The Times [London]. August 31, 1960, p. 12.

Riess, Curt. Das war ein Leben! Munich and Vienna: Langen Müller, 1988.

Spalek, John M., Joseph Strelka, and Sandra H. Hawrylchak. Deutsche Exilliteratur Seit 1933. 1 Kalifornien. Munich: Francke Verlag, 1976.

"Villain Rubber," in The Commonweal. Vol. 39, no. 9. December 17, 1943, pp. 233–234.

Walter, Hans-Albert. Deutsche Exilliteratur 1933–1950. Internierung, Flucht und Lebensbedingungen im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1988.

Wolf, Ralph F. "The Hand of Esso," in The New Republic. Vol. 110, no. 6. February 7, 1944, p. 188.

Ziegfield, Richard. "Baum, Vicki," in Contemporary Authors. Vol. 93–96. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, pp. 38–41.

Karin Loewen Haag , freelance writer, Athens, Georgia