Alexander Roda Roda


Alexander Roda Roda was an Austrian writer.

Biography

Roda Roda was born as Šandor Friedrich Rosenfeld in Drnowitz, Moravia, Austria-Hungary. His sister was the physician Gisela Januszewska. As a child, he moved with his family to Slavonia. He Germanized his name from Šandor to Alexander, and his surname from Rosenfeld to Roda Roda. Roda is the Croatian word for stork. He chose his new surname because storks nested on the chimney of his house in Esseg. He spent more than 30 years living and working in Osijek and Slavonia. In 1894, Roda Roda converted from Judaism to Catholicism. In 1902, Roda Roda quit the military career and became a journalist ; he contributed to the German satirical magazine Simplicissimus. In 1938, he emigrated to the US. He wrote many comedies, tales and novels, and autobiographical books. He died in New York City. Until his death, Roda Roda considered Esseg to be his hometown.
In 1911 Roda Roda published a series of articles for the Neue Freie Presse, one of Austria's most respected newspapers. Between 1914 and 1917, he produced nearly 700 articles as war correspondent for the paper as well as the German-language newspaper published in Budapest, Pester Lloyd. In the 1920s, Roda Roda's humorous and satirical book publications were largely successful. He appeared in cabarets, traveled extensively, and had contact with dozens of authors, actors, filmmakers, and other artists of his milieu.
Roda Roda's ashes are buried at Feuerhalle Simmering.
Roda Roda was also a passionate chess player and often played in the Munich coffee house Café Stefanie. Here he found inspiration for his humorous text that discusses chess, "Das Pensionistengambit", originally the chapter "Schach" in his 1932 collection Roda Roda und die vierzig Schurken.
In 1952, Vienna's city district Floridsdorf named a street, Roda-Roda-Gasse, after the author. The city of Osijek, Croatia, also boasts a bust of Roda Roda in front of the library building in Europska avenija.

Filmography

Film adaptations