Monthly Archives: July 2026

“Refugee Intellectuals: (1930-1940) During the 1930s, a galaxy of European intellectuals–authors, artists, scholars, scientists–fled European totalitarianism and found refuge, permanent or temporary, in the United States. Their contributions to the nation’s cultural life–and later to its war effort–were incalculable. The hundreds of refugee intellectuals included:

• George Balanchine, Russian dancer and choreographer, to U.S. 1933
• Hans Bethe, German physicist, to U.S. 1935.
• Bertolt Brecht, German playwright and poet, in U.S. 1941-49
• Marcel Breuer, Hungarian architect, to U.S. 1937
• Rudolf Carnap, German philosopher, to U.S. 1936
• Albert Einstein, German physicist, to U.S. 1933
• Erik Erikson, German psychoanalyst, to U.S. 1933
• Max Ernst, German painter, in U.S. 1939-49
• Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, to U.S. 1938
• Erich Fromm, German psychoanalyst, to U.S. 1934
• Walter Gropius, German architect, to U.S. 1937
• George Grosz, German painter, to U.S. 1933
• Paul Hindemith, German composer, in U.S. 1940-52
• Hans Hofmann, German painter, to U.S. 1930
• Karen Horney, German psychoanalyst, to U.S. 1932
• Wolfgang Kohler, German psychologist, to U.S. 1934
• Fritz Lang, German film director, to U.S. 1934
• Thomas Mann, German author, in U.S. 1938-53
• Herbert Marcuse, German political philosopher, to U.S. 1934
• Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German architect, to U.S. 1937
• Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Hungarian painter, to U.S. 1937
• Hans Morgenthau, German political scientist, to U.S. 1937
• Erwin Panovsky, German art historian, to U.S.
• Erwin Piscator, German theatrical director, in U.S. 1939-1951
• Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer, to U.S. 1931
• Joseph Schumpeter, Austrian economist, to U.S. 1932
• Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish-Yiddish novelist, to U.S. 1935
• Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer, to U.S. 1937
• George Szell, Hungarian conductor, to U.S. 1937
• Leo Szilard, Hungarian physicist, to U.S. 1938
• Edward Teller, Hungarian physicist, to U.S. 1935
• Paul Tillich, German theologian, to U.S. 1933
• Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor, to U.S. 1930
• John Von Neumann, Hungarian mathematician, to U.S. 1930
• Bruno Walter, German conductor, to U.S. 1938
• Kurt Weill, German composer, to U.S. 1935
• Max Wertheimer, German psychologist, to U.S. 1933
• Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist, to U.S. 1930

Excerpted from: Rosenbaum, Robert A. The Penguin Encyclopedia of American History. New York: Penguin, 2003.