# Maria Leitner

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For the Italian ice hockey player, see [Maria Leitner (ice hockey)](/source/Maria_Leitner_(ice_hockey)).

**Maria Leitner** (19 January 1892 – 14 March 1942) was a Hungarian writer and journalist in the German language. She is remembered as a pioneer of "undercover reporting".[1]

## Early years

Maria Leitner came from a bilingual Jewish family. She was born, the eldest of her parents' three recorded children, on 19 January 1892 in [Varaždin](/source/Vara%C5%BEdin), Austria-Hungary, today in [Croatia](/source/Croatia). Her father, Leopold Leitner, ran a small building business.[2] In 1896 the family relocated to [Budapest](/source/Budapest) where she grew up and attended "The Royal Senior Girls' School" between 1902 and 1910. It was probably here that she learned both her [English](/source/English_language) and her [French](/source/French_language).[2] She then studied [art history](/source/Art_history) in [Vienna](/source/Vienna) and [Berlin](/source/Berlin), completing an internship in [Paul Cassirer](/source/Paul_Cassirer)'s Berlin gallery which resulted in a translation into German of [William Hogarth](/source/William_Hogarth)'s "Aufzeichnungen" (loosely: *"notes"*)

## Career

From 1913, she worked for the newspaper *Az Est* ("Evening"). After [war](/source/First_World_War) broke out in the summer of 1914 she worked as a reporter – at one stage reporting for the [Budapest](/source/Budapest) newspapers from [Stockholm](/source/Stockholm). In 1920, she fled from Hungary to Germany because of her left-wing anti-militarist activities.[3] In Germany, she wrote for various newspapers, and books reviews for the publishing house Ullstein. In her book *Hotel Amerika*, she describes poor America from within. As a result, she was a hired as a cleaning lady in luxury hotels. Her work was thus connected with the literary current of the [Neue Sachlichkeit](/source/Neue_Sachlichkeit) ("New Objectivity"), in vogue in the [Weimar Republic](/source/Weimar_Republic).[4]

In 1933, after the [Nazis](/source/Nazi_Party) [came to power](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machtergreifung), Leitner, a Jew and a revolutionary, emigrated from Germany and went into exile. Her works were banned from publication in Nazi Germany. She earned her living by writing in the anti-Nazi magazine *Das Wort* published in [Moscow](/source/Moscow).[5] In 1940, she was in France, and as with a number of exiles from Germany, she was interned at [Gurs internment camp](/source/Gurs_internment_camp). She managed to escape but could not leave France. The conditions of her death are unclear. In July 1940, she wrote to [Hubertus, Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg](/source/Hubertus,_Prince_of_L%C3%B6wenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg), the most famous of the founding signatories of the [American Guild for German Cultural Freedom](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Guild_for_German_Cultural_Freedom). In total she had already written at least twelve letters to the guild between 1938 and March 1941, seeking assistance: the letters have been kept by them in their "Archive of German Exiles".[2] This last appeal for desperate help is Leitner's last known piece of writing. However, she was last seen in [Marseille](/source/Marseille) early in 1941 by [Anna Seghers](/source/Anna_Seghers) and [Alexander Abusch](/source/Alexander_Abusch).[3]

She may have died in exile: one source speculates that she died of hunger, isolated in [Marseille](/source/Marseille).[4] Another speculates that she was one of many Jewish political exiles from Germany who failed to obtain exit visas from the [French authorities](/source/Vichy_France) and were rounded up and deported to concentration camps in Germany where many were killed.[3]

## Selected works

- 1930, *Hotel Amerika*, roman-reportage
- 1932, *Eine Frau reist durch die Welt*, reportage
- 2013, *Mädchen mit drei Namen. Reportagen aus Deutschland und ein Berliner Roman, 1928–1933*, Berlin, AvivA Verlag
- 2014, *Elisabeth, ein Hitlermädchen. Ein Roman und Reportagen (1934–1939)*, Berlin, AvivA Verlag

## References

1. Hans Schmid (31 December 2009). ["Kein Platz im Hotel Amerika"](https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Kein-Platz-im-Hotel-Amerika-3383739.html). Heise Medien. Retrieved 25 April 2017.

1. Tanja Rogaunig (author) & [Dr. Hannes Haas](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannes_Haas) (moderator) (October 2010). ["Thematisierungs-, Recherche- und Darstellungsstrukturen in den Reportagen Maria Leitners (1892–1942) ... Thematisierungs-, Recherche- und Darstellungsstrukturen in den Reportagen Maria Leitners (1892–1942) ... Das Leben Maria Leitners: wie ein Sandkorn im Sturm"](http://othes.univie.ac.at/12161/1/2010-10-11_0308661.pdf). *"ABER MARY, ... SIE SPIELEN JA NUR!" (academic "Magister" dissertation)*. [University of Vienna](/source/University_of_Vienna). pp. 70–74, 109–110. Retrieved 25 April 2017.

1. ["Kurzbiographie \[Marie Leitner](http://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/frauenarchiv/exil/leitner/leitner5.html)"]. *Frauen-Kultur-Archiv*. Die Philosophische Fakultät der Heinrich-Heine-Universität, [Düsseldorf](/source/D%C3%BCsseldorf). Retrieved 25 April 2017.

1. Volker Weidermann, 2009, Das Buch der verbrannten Bücher, btb-verlag, page 70 (in German)

1. Wilhelm Sternfeld, Eva Tiedemann, 1970, Deutsche Exil-Litteratur 1933–1945 second edition expanded, Heidelberg, Verlag Lambert Schneider, page 301 (in German)

## Further reading

- *Chronology of the life of Maria Leitner* at the Frauen-Kultur-Archiv. (in German)
- Julian Preece, ‘The Literary Interventions of a Radical Writer Journalist: Maria Leitner (1892–1942)’, in *Discovering Women's History: German-speaking Journalists 1900–1950*, edited by Christa Spreizer (New York: Lang, 2014), pp. 245–66

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