Gustav Regler

Who was Gustav Regler?

Gustav Regler was a German Socialist novelist.

Regler was born in Merzig. He served in the Germany Infantry during the First World War, and was seriously injured; he joined the Communist Party, and spent time in the USSR. He later served as political commissar of the XII International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. Whilst in Spain he befriended Ernest Hemingway, and was wounded at the Battle of Guadalajara.

As a Communist, he was long-time friend of Arthur Koestler, first in Berlin, then Paris and during the Spanish Civil War. Regler's books were banned in the Third Reich. While in Spain, he wrote articles as a special correspondent for the Deutsche Zentral Zeitung. He accompanied Lillian Hellman on a visit to a Benicàssim hospital in October 1937.

He wrote about his Spanish experiences in his novel The Great Crusade, introduced by Ernest Hemingway, translated by Whittaker Chambers.

His memoirs were published as The Owl of Minerva in London in 1959. Time magazine called him the German "Malraux."

Regler died, aged 69, in New Delhi.