Johannes Mario Simmel

Johannes Mario Simmel
Johannes Mario Simmel photographed by Oliver Mark, Zug 2007
Johannes Mario Simmel photographed by Oliver Mark, Zug 2007
Born(1924-04-07)7 April 1924
Vienna, Austria
Died1 January 2009(2009-01-01) (aged 84)
Lucerne, Switzerland
OccupationNovelist, screenwriter, journalist
NationalityAustrian
EducationChemical engineer
Alma materHöhere Bundeslehr- und Versuchsanstalt für chemische Industrie
Period1949 – 1999
Notable worksIt can't always be caviar

Johannes Mario Simmel (7 April 1924 – 1 January 2009), also known as J. M. Simmel, was an Austrian writer.

He was born in Vienna and grew up in Austria and England. He was trained as a chemical engineer and worked in research from 1943 to the end of World War II. After the end of the war, he worked as a translator for the United States Office of Military Government based in Germany and published reviews and stories in the Vienna Welt am Abend. Starting in 1950, he worked as a reporter for the Munich illustrated Quick in Europe and America.

He wrote a number of screenplays and novels, which have sold tens of millions of copies.[1] Many of his novels were successfully filmed in the 1960s and 1970s. He won numerous prizes, including the Award of Excellence of the Society of Writers of the UN. Important issues in his novels are a fervent pacifism as well as the relativity of good and bad. Several novels are said to have a true background, possibly autobiographic.

According to his Swiss lawyer, Simmel died on 1 January 2009 in Lucerne, at 84 years of age.[2] This date was the 99th birthday of "Thomas Lieven", the main character of "It can't always be caviar."

  1. ^ Grimes, William (26 January 2009). "Johannes M. Simmel, Writer of Cold-War Novels, Dies at 84". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 January 2009.
  2. ^ "Schriftsteller Johannes Mario Simmel gestorben ("Writer Johannes Mario Simmel died")". Spiegel Online (in German). 2 January 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2009.