Biography

Johannes Mario Simmel was born on April 7, 1924 in Vienna, Austria. He was a writer and actor, known for Stefanie (1958), Verträumte Tage (1951) and Hotel Adlon (1955). He was married to Lulu Gräfin von Treuberg, Helena Poszvek and Christa Simmel. He died on January 1, 2009 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

He came from a family of German Jews. His father Walter Simmel was forced by the Nazis to work as a chemist on the VI / V2 rockets but surreptitiously sabotaged their batteries. Mother Lisa was a reader at Wien-Film.

His books regularly topped German bestseller lists before Nobel laureates such as Günter Grass and Heinrich Böll. Many of them were translated into other languages.

His play "The Classmate" was adapted for Broadway.

He studied chemical engineering before discovering his talent for writing.