Curt Riess

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curt_Martin_Riess

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/21/obituaries/curt-riess-author-and...

Son of Bernhard Steinam, adopted by Carl Riess

Curt Riess, a refugee from Nazi Germany who returned as an American war correspondent to record the demise of Hitler's Third Reich, died on Wednesday at his home in Switzerland. He was 90 and lived in a suburb of Zurich.

Comfortable in English and German, he became a prolific trans-Atlantic author in both languages, producing a stream of newspaper and magazine articles, novels, biographies, screenplays and plays.

A former Berlin journalist, Mr. Riess drew attention in the United States in the 1930's and during World War II with his books and widely syndicated reporting about Hitler's Germany.

For instance, "The Nazis Go Underground" (Doubleday, 1944) described German espionage and what designs Hitler's associates might have for overseas after a defeat. Wrote About Resistance

Sales of another book in that area, "Total Espionage" (Putnam, 1941), soared after the United States entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. "Underground Europe" (Dial, 1942) was a dramatic account of the various anti-Nazi resistance movements in occupied Europe.

"The Berlin Story" (Dial, 1952) described the city as an epitome of East-West confrontation.

Curt Martin Riess was born in Wurzburg, Bavaria, and received his higher education in Berlin, Munich, Heidelberg, Zurich and Paris, focusing on literature and economics. He first turned to sports journalism, criss-crossing Europe to report for the Berlin press. Left Germany for Paris

With Hitler's rise to power, Mr. Riess left Germany for Paris. In 1934, Paris Soir, one of the Continent's largest papers, sent him to the United States. In the following years he shuttled between London, Paris, New York and Hollywood as a freelance journalist.

He was in Berchtesgaden, Hitler's favorite retreat in the Bavarian Alps, when the war ended. He then worked in New York and returned to live in Germany. He moved to Switzerland in 1952.

A biography of Joseph Goebbels, in English, was published by Doubleday in 1948; other subjects were Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Wilhelm Furtwangler and the actor Gustaf Grundgens.