Author. He was an Austrian novelist, journalist and playwright. One of his most famous novels is "Die freudlose Gasse" or "The Joyless Street", which was adapted to the 1925 film by German director G. W. Pabst with actress Greta Garbo in her second major role. The film was released in the United States as "The Street of Sorrow" and was the first film of The Objectivity Movement. He was also famous for his anti-Nazi satire of antisemitism "Die Stadt ohne Juden" or "The State without Jews", which was subsequently made into the 1922 stage play and the 1924 film. After selling 250,000 copies in its first year, "The State without Jews" gave him a group of young supporters as well as malicious enemies especially in the newly formed Nazi Political Party. For his political stance, he was labeled as the "Red Poet" and assassinated by a Nazi Party follower in 1925. "The State without Jews" has become part of world history, being reissued in 1988 and 1996. Born Maximilian Hugo Bettaue into a Jewish household, he converted to Christianity in 1890. With the inheritance from his father's estate, he and his actress wife Olga Steiner came to the United States for a short time, becoming a United States citizen but he was not able to find work before returning almost penniless to Berlin in 1899. The couple had one son, who was taken to Auschwitz Concentration Camp in 1942 during World War II and never came home. In 1904 he returned to the United States with a second younger wife and the couple had a second son. He returned to Austria in 1910 finding employment as a journalist. During World War I, he was refused for the Austrian military as he was an American citizen. After the war, he continued with his journalist career as a foreign correspondent for New York newspapers as well as penning four or five novels a year for a total of at least twenty novels, in addition to two stage plays, and articles in several periodicals.