Hermann Broch was born in Teesdorf bei Wien. His father was a Jewish industrialist. He studied natural sciences, mathematics and engineering. Later he became director of a Viennese textile firm. When he was in his forties he decided to devote himself wholly to writing. His first literary work, a trilogy titled Die Schlafwandler (The Sleepwalkers) was published in 1932 and brought him literary recognition. In this work, through the three main characters, Hermann Broch describes the decay of values in three decades from 1888-1918.
A day after the Anschluss (March 1938) Broch was arrested on suspicion of being a Communist. He was released after three weeks in prison in Bad Aussee near Vienna. When he returned to Vienna he was under constant fear of being arrested again. Through the intervention of the Irish writer, James Joyce, he received a visa to Britain. Later, Thomas Mann and Albert Einstein, who already lived in the USA, signed affidavits for Broch. In 1939 he came to New York and settled in Princeton, N.J. There he completed his best work Der Tod des Vergil (The Death of Virgil) Broch’s literary style is lyrical. Throughout the years 1952-1961 some of his best works were compiled in ten volumes. Broch died in New Haven, Conn., USA in 1951.