Fraenkel, Heinrich, 1897-1986

Heinrich Fraenkel was co-author, with Roger Manvell, of several Nazi biographies and monographs.

From the guide to the Heinrich Fraenkel Photograph Collection, 1930-1960, (Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico.)

Writer, journalist and historian. Born, Lissa, Poland, 1897.

From the description of Papers, 1915-1973 (University of New Mexico-Main Campus). WorldCat record id: 19550967

Heinrich Fraenkel was born on 28 September 1897 in Lissa, Poland (former German province of Posen), yet since his third year he grew up in Berlin. Fraenkel attended high school in Berlin. While vacationing in England during the summer of 1914 the European war broke out and he was interned on the Isle of Man. Though interned, he was given the chance to continue his education and to finish his baccalaureate (Abitur).

From 1919 on Fraenkel attended the universities of Berlin, Frankfurt and Wuerzburg to study law and economics. Thereafter his interests turned to film journalism and in the mid 1920s he became advertisement representative of several big Hollywood firms for central Europe giving him the opportunity for extensive travels. Later, as a free lance writer, he turned his interest primarily toward film issues. Under various pseudonyms he also wrote suspense novels. In 1932 he returned to Berlin, experienced some difficulties in 1938, but escaped Nazi persecutions. He moved first to Paris, then to London, Spain, and again to London. In that period he wrote many books and booklets for "Another Germany" (primarily published with Gollancz) and gave speeches against a post war Germany policy proposed by people like von Vansittart and Morgenthau.

In England Fraenkel was cofounder of the "Free German Movement", which he left, however, in 1944 after tensions appeared with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Ever since then he reduced his political involvement to literary or journalistic participation.

After 1945 Fraenkel's initial intention was to return to Germany, but instead undertook major trips as reporter for the "New Statesman." In 1950 he, decided to become a British citizen. He justified his decision in his autobiography Farewell to Germany (1959), which appeared a year later in its German translation Lebewohl Deutschland. This book attracted some criticism because of its critical view on German conditions. Other books by Fraenkel followed since 1945: A Nation Divided and A Boy Between .

Fraenkel continued to work for the New Statesman in which he maintained under the pseudonym "Assiac" a weekly chess column. He continued to give speeches primarily on historic and journalistic topics. His special interest aimed at film history for which he wrote the two volume work Immortal Film.

Fraenkel was married to a German born woman and had two sons (born 1942 and 1947).

Heinrich Fraenkel coauthored the Nazi books with Roger Manvell, a graduate and Ph.D. of London University and University lecturer on literature, drama and film. Manvell worked primarily as biographer, writer on film and television, screenwriter and broadcaster. Among other positions he held the post of Director of the British Film Academy (1947-1959), Governor and Head of the Department of Film History at London School of Film Technique. During the war, he worked for the Films Division of the Ministry of Information, and was for a while on the staff of the British Film Institute before becoming Director of the British Film Academy. Some books on film and television include: Film (1944), The Film and the Public (1955), The Animated Film (1954), New Cinema in Europe (1966), History of German Cinema (w/ H. Fraenkel, 1971).

After years of research Fraenkel and Manvell published their first book, the first English biography of Josef Goebbels which appeared on the market in February 1960 and in the German translation in November 1960. Translations into other languages soon followed. Fraenkel and Manvell tried to get behind the person of Goebbels by successfully interviewing Goebbels' sister, teachers and friends. A biography of Hermann Goering was published in 1962, followed by one of Heinrich Himmler in 1965.

From the guide to the Heinrich Fraenkel Papers, 1915-1973, (University of New Mexico. Center for Southwest Research.)