Arno Schmidt

Arno Schmidt (18 January 1914 – 3 June 1979) was a German author and translator. Although little known outside of German-speaking areas, as his works present formidable challenges to translators, and not one of the popular favourites in Germany, critics and writers often consider him to be one of the most important German-language writers of the 20th century.

Biography

Born in Hamburg, son of a police constable, Schmidt moved, in 1928, after the death of his father, with his mother to her hometown of Lauban (in Lusatia, then Lower Silesia, now Poland) and attended secondary school in Görlitz as well as a trade school there. After finishing school he was unemployed for some months and then, in 1934, began a commercial apprenticeship at a textile company in Greiffenberg. After finishing his apprenticeship he was hired by the same company as a stock accountant. Around this time, at his company, he met his future wife, Alice Murawski. The couple married on 21 August 1937; they had no children. At the outset of World War II, in 1939, Schmidt was drafted into the Wehrmacht, where his mathematical skills led him to be assigned to the artillery corps. He first served in Alsace and after 1941 in fairly quiet Norway. In 1945, Schmidt volunteered for active front duty in Northern Germany, in order to be granted a brief home visit. As the war was obviously lost, he used this visit to organise his wife's and his own escape to the west of Germany, in order to evade capture by the Red Army, which was known for its much harsher treatment of prisoners of war and German civilians. Schmidt gave himself up to British forces in Lower Saxony. As refugees, Schmidt and his wife lost almost all of their possessions, including their cherished book collection.

Arno Schmidt (chef)

Arno Schmidt (born c. 1935 in Salzburg) is an Austrian chef and food critic and writer. With a background working for hotels such as the Grand Royal Hotel in Stockholm and the Hotel Victoria in Zermatt, Switzerland, arrived in New York City in 1959 and worked for the Regency Hotel before becoming the executive chef of the prestigious Waldorf Astoria New York from 1969 to 1979. He then worked as a Food and Beverage Director at the Helmsley Hotel and at the Plaza Hotel from 1984 to 1986. In 2003 he published Chef's Book of Formulas, Yields and Sizes. Between 2008 and 2011 he was the Big Apple Chapter President for the American Culinary Federation. Phyllis Hanes, food critic of The Christian Science Monitor, called Schmidt "one of the very best chefs in the country".

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