Dr. Raoul Othmar Auernheimer

Raoul Othmar Auernheimer was born in Vienna, the son of the Jewish merchant Johann Wilhelm Auernheimer and his wife Charlotte, née Büchler, also Jewish, known as Jenny. Jenny Auernheimer is the cousin of the Jewish writer and politician Theodor Herzl. Raoul Auernheimer spends his childhood in Linz, where he attends elementary school. He then moved to Vienna, where he attended the Bundesrealgymnasium in Döbling. He graduated there in 1894, enrolled in law at the University of Vienna and completed his military service as a one-year volunteer. Raoul Auernheimer graduated in 1900 and began working as a court clerk. In 1906, he married Irene Beate Leopoldin Gutmann from Budapest and became the father of a daughter.

In addition to his work as a court clerk, Raoul Auernheimer was active as a writer and wrote countless novellas, plays and short stories. He also worked as a theater critic and feature writer for the Neue Freie Presse, where he headed the Burgtheater department, and other magazines.

From 1920 until his death, he was also a regular contributor to the National-Zeitung. Organ für Handel und Industrie, Anzeigeblatt der Stadt Basel from 1920 until his death. In 1922, Raoul Auernheimer was a proponent of the Vienna PEN Club, founded in 1923, and its first president from 1923 to 1927, then vice-president and interim director from 1933 to 1935. He was also a member of the journalists' and writers' association Concordia.

On March 12, 1938, the day Austria was occupied by the Third Reich, Raoul Auernheimer was in Switzerland. After his return, he was arrested by the Gestapo on March 21, 1938 and deported to Dachau concentration camp on April 2, 1938 on the so-called Prominent Transport. After the writer Emil Ludwig turned to the Consul General of the USA, Raymund Geist, the latter intervened in favor of Raoul Auernheimer. As a result of this intercession, he was released from Dachau concentration camp on August 25, 1938.

In November 1938, Raoul Auernheimer and his family finally managed to emigrate to New York in the USA via Italy, Switzerland, France and Italy again. He moved to California in 1941 and was granted US citizenship in 1944.

In the United States of America, Raoul Auernheimer is active in the Austrian exile movement, is a member of the Free Austrian PEN and works on the Cultural Series of the Free Austrian Movement.