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Manès Sperber | |
|---|---|
 Manès Sperber memorial in Zabolotiv | |
| Born | 12 December 1905  |
| Died | 5 February 1984 (aged 78) |
| Occupation | Writer,essayist,psychologist, humanist, publisher |
| Children | Vladimir Sperber,Dan Sperber |
| Relatives | Milo Sperber |
| Awards |
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Manès Sperber (12 December 1905 – 5 February 1984) was an Austrian-French novelist, essayist andpsychologist. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Jan Heger and N.A. Menlos.
Manès Sperber was born on 12 December 1905 inZabłotów, nearKolomea, in theAustrian Galicia (nowZabolotiv, Ukraine). He grew up in theshtetl of Zabłotów in aHasidic Jewish family. His father was David Mechel Sperber and his older brother wasMilo Sperber (born 1911).[1][better source needed] Milo later moved to Britain and became an actor, often reading from Manès's works.
In the summer of 1916 the family fled from war toVienna, where the 13-year-old[inconsistent] Sperber, having lost his Jewish faith, refused to do hisbar mitzvah and joined the JewishHashomer Hatzair youth movement. In Vienna he met the psychotherapistAlfred Adler, the founder ofindividual psychology, and became his student and co-worker. Adler broke with him in 1932 because of differences in opinion about the connection of individual psychology andMarxism.
By 1927 Sperber had moved to Berlin and joined theCommunist Party of Germany. He lectured at theBerliner Gesellschaft für Individualpsychologie, an institute for individual psychology.[citation needed]
AfterAdolf Hitler and theNazi Party took power in Germany Sperber was taken to jail, but was released after a few weeks on the grounds that he was an Austrian citizen. He emigrated first toYugoslavia and then in 1934 to Paris, where he worked for theCommunist International withWilli Münzenberg. In 1938 he left the party because of theStalinist purges within it. In his writing he started to deal withtotalitarianism and the role of the individual within society (Zur Analyse der Tyrannis).
In 1939 Sperber volunteered for theFrench Army. After the defeat by Germany, he took refuge inCagnes, in the "zone libre" (free zone) of France, and had to flee with his family to Switzerland in 1942, when the deportation of Jews started in that zone too.
After the end of the war, in 1945, he returned to Paris, and worked as a writer and as a senior editor at the Calmann-Lévy publishing house.
Sperber was the author of a novel trilogy:Like a Tear in the Ocean: A Trilogy, (1949–1955); of an autobiographical trilogy:All our Yesterdays (1974–1997), and numerous essays on philosophy, politics, literature and psychology. Sperber received theFriedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels in 1983. In awarding the prize, the association described Sperber as a "writer, who tracked the path of the ideological aberrations of the century, and freed himself from them entirely. Throughout his life he retained the independence of his own judgement, and incapable of indifference, summoned the courage, to get himself onto that non-existing bridge that only opens up in front of those who step out over the abyss."[2] The German writerSiegfried Lenz gave the speech highlighting Sperber's lifetime achievement.[3]
One of his closest friends was the novelistConstantine FitzGibbon, who translated much of his work into English.
Sperber was the father of the Italian historian Vladimir Sperber and the French anthropologist and cognitive scientistDan Sperber. His first wife, Miriam Sperber, eventually emigrated toChampaign, Illinois, United States, and became a counsellor at the Psychological and Counseling Center there.
Sperber died on 5 February 1984 in Paris. He was buried in theMontparnasse cemetery in Paris.
In 1988 the city of Vienna dedicated a park in theLeopoldstadt district to Sperber.[4]
TheManès-Sperber-Prize for Literature[5] (Manès-Sperber-Preis für Literatur[6]) was established in 1985 by the thenAustrian Ministry of Art and Culture in honour of Sperber, withSiegfried Lenz winning the inaugural prize. As of 2025[update] it is worth €10,000.[7]
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