I'm An American -- Emil Ludwig

On December 1, 1940 Emil Ludwig spoke with Harry Blee, Assistant District Director of the Los Angeles Immigration and Naturalization Service, about the ideal characteristics and customs of Americans. Ludwig shares a story about the democratic views he had at a young age. He reveals he left his homeland 35 years ago seeking liberty. The famed biographer explains the difference of working, living and being in public spaces in Europe. He reveals he finds enjoyment in the simple things of American life. He closes the program praising the spirit of America’s youth. Emil Ludwig (b. Emil Cohn) was born on January 25, 1881 in Breslau (now Wroclaw), Poland. Although he studied law, Ludwig chose a writing as a career. He served as a foreign correspondent during WWI for the Berliner Tageblatt, a German newspaper. In the 1930s, he achieved international fame for his biographies and novels which combined historical fact and fiction with psychological analysis. Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda for the Nazi Party, considered Ludwig's writings dangerous, and in 1933 burned his books. Nevertheless Ludwig’s works, which focused on the personality of the subject, established him as a writer in the “new school” of biography.