Oskar Maria Graf

Oskar Maria Graf (22 July 1894 – 28 June 1967) was a German author.

He wrote several socialist-anarchist novels and narratives about life in Bavaria, mostly autobiographical.

In the beginning Graf wrote under his real name Oskar Graf. After 1918, his works for newspapers were signed with the pseudonym Oskar Graf-Berg; for works he regarded as "worth reading", he used the name Oskar Maria Graf.

Graf was born in Berg in the Kingdom of Bavaria, situated in the picturesque landscape around Lake Starnberg near Munich. He was the ninth child of the baker Max Graf and his wife Therese (née Heimrath), a farmer's daughter. From 1900 on he went to the state school in Aufkirchen, in the municipality of Berg. After his father died in 1906, he learned the baker's trade and worked for his brother Max, who had taken over their father's bakery.

In 1911, hoping to earn a living as a poet, he fled to Munich to escape his brother's violence. He joined Bohemian circles and took odd jobs, working at times as a mail sorter or a lift operator. In 1912 and 1913, he traveled to Ticino and northern Italy.

On 1 December 1914, he was drafted for military service. A year later, in 1915, he published his first story, in the magazine Die Freie Straße ["Free street"]. In 1916, Graf was nearly court-martialed for refusing a command. However, after a ten-day hunger strike, he was sent instead to a psychiatric hospital and later discharged from the military.

On 26 May 1917, Graf married Karoline Bretting. A year later, their daughter Annemarie (13 June 1918 – 2008), called Annamirl, was born. In the beginning of the same year, Graf was arrested for participating in a munitions workers' strike. He also met the woman who later became his second wife, Mirjam Sachs, the sister of Manfred George and a cousin of Nelly Sachs. In 1919, Graf was arrested again for participating in revolutionary movements in Munich.

In 1920, he was active as a dramaturg at the working-class theater Die neue Bühne ("The new stage"), until he achieved literary fame in 1927 with his memoir Wir sind Gefangene (Prisoners All), which allowed him to live as a freelance writer.

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