Understanding Franz Werfel describes the life and work of the Austrian poet and novelist who heralded the German Expressionist movement in 1911, wrote some of Europe's most widely read novels in the 1930s, and enjoyed popular success in the 1940s with the film adaptations of his best-selling novels. Hans Wagener recounts Werfel's childhood in Prague, his service as a World War I soldier, his work as a writer in Vienna where he met and married Alma Mahler, his exile in France, and his final years in the United States.