Anton Zischka

Anton Emmerich Zischka (von Trochnov) (September 14, 1904 in Vienna – May 31, 1997 Pollença (Majorca, Spain)) was an Austrian journalist and one of the most successful non-fiction writers in the 20th century. He wrote also under the pseudonyms Rupert Donkan, Thomas Daring, Darius Plecha and Antal Sorba. His some 40 books that mostly covered non-fictional economic and technical topics have been translated into 18 languages.

The multilingual Zischka was working for Neue Freien Presse from 1924 to 1929 and from 1930 in Paris as correspondent for different European and American newspapers. His big success as a journalist allowed him e.g. to buy and use a private airplane which allowed him to report internationally. His writings about the China flood disaster of 1931 have been covered by nearly all European newspapers. Zischka worked as a freelance author since the success of his first book Le Monde en Folie 1933 and stayed with his Dutch wife from 1935 till his death 1997 on their own finca in San Vicente, Majorca. Parts of Zischka's private archive are now to be found in Deutsches Museum Munich.

Start of the 1930s Zischka reports about foreign countries and global industries (Zischka worked under cover in Belgian coal mines and Romanian oil fields) promoted connoisseurship and authenticity. He found a broad audience in Nazi Germany but as well abroad.

The growth and success of the Goldmann publishing house in Leipzig was mainly based on the success of Zischka's bestsellers which are different from, for instance, , a more fictional Raw Material bestseller written during the Third Reich. Zischka remained in Spain (and staunchly adhered to non-fiction) and found international praise as well. Zischka finally found (after some vain efforts) a sponsor within the Nazi elite, Fritz Todt. The latter introduced Wissenschaft bricht Monopole (1936) as text book in secondary schools and made Zischka an household name within the regime. The book was translated in 18 languages and sold worldwide.

Similar to "Ölkrieg", Zischka explained the background of war and armed conflict as simple struggles for land and raw materials. Zischka presented German technical developments as Coal fluidization or the (Haber process) as being able to guarantee peace. He juxtaposed the greedy capitalism of British or American monopoles against the German orderly working, organic "Volksgemeinschaft" willing to share its technology. Against an Anglo Saxon democratic public, a society dominated by mass media and party politics Zischka put his (very German) ideal of an organic synthesis, a common Gemeinschaft based on a broad mass movement led by technocrats deciding on efficiency criteria.

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