• Obermann, Karl

    Biographical details: 22 September 1905 in Cologne – 10 July 1987 in Berlin, DDR
    Occupation: Historian
    Exile: 1933 France, 1941 USA
    Remigration: 1946 Germany/Soviet occupation zone
    Karl Obermann worked as a journalist in Paris where he attended lectures at the Sorbonne as a guest student. He joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1936. Obermann was interned in 1939. He fled to the USA in 1941 where he worked for "The German American" magazine from 1943 to 1946. After remigrating to the later German Democratic Republic, he was able, for the first time, to study history at university.
  • Olden, Rudolf

    Biographical details: 14 January 1885 in Stettin (now: Szczecin, Poland) – 18 September 1940 in the Atlantic
    Occupation: Journalist, lawyer
    Exile: 1933 Czechoslovakia, 1933 United Kingdom, 1940 USA
    Rudolf Olden fled to Prague on 28 February 1933. There, and later in the United Kingdom, he wrote e.g. for the "Neue Tage-Buch" and the "Pariser Tageblatt". He was one of the founders of the German PEN Group in Exile in 1934, and assumed the position of secretary. In September 1940 Olden intended to continue his escape to the USA. He died when the ship was torpedoed by a German U-Boot and sank.