Hermann Borchardt was a German intellectual with Marxist leanings who left Germany in 1933 following Hitler's rise to power. He moved to Russia to teach German, but his exposure to the oppression he found there led him to reverse his political leanings and become an outspoken critic of communism. His family was expelled from Russia in 1936, and returned to Germany. Borchardt spent 10 months in Nazi concentration camps before finally being allowed to leave Germany and immigrate to the United States, where his family later joined him. He continued to write books, short stories, and articles criticising communism. His best work is considered to be The Conspiracy of the Carpenters, published in 1943; other works include Philosophische Grundbegriffe (1927); The Bloody Deeds of Germersheim Before the Eternal Judge, Music of the Near Future, The Red Document (1929); The Brethren of Halberstadt (1938); and The Wife of the Police-Commissionaire (1946). He died of a heart attack in 1951.
Borchardt's youngest son, Frank, was born in New York City, and eventually became a professor of German Languages at Duke University.
From the guide to the Hermann Borchardt Papers, 1918-1960s, (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)
