With the publication in 1928 of his novel Jahrgang 1902 (translated as Class 1902, 1929) Ernst Glaeser became one of the most important writers in the waning years of the Weimar Republic. The novel was an immediate success and was translated into twenty-five languages; Ernest Hemingway characterized it as a "damned good book." Jahrgang 1902 was almost as successful as the classic antiwar novel of the time, Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen nichts Neues (1929; translated as All Quiet on the Western Front, 1929). Glaeser's other highly successful novel, Der letzte Zivilist (1935; translated as The Last Civilian, 1935), was written during his exile from Nazi Germany and published in Paris. Like Jahrgang 1902, Der letzte Zivilist quickly became known to an international audience; it was translated into twenty-four languages.

Glaeser was born on 29 July 1902 to Hans G. and Ruppel Glaeser in the small town of Butzbach in Hesse; his father was a judge. He studied at the...