Peter Demetz

Peter Demetz (1922–2024), born in Prague, was a scholar and professor of literature. After the communist takeover in Czechoslovakia, he fled to the West in 1948, worked for Radio Free Europe, and moved to the United States in 1953. From 1956 until his retirement in 1991, he taught German and comparative literature at Yale University. He served on the jury of the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize from 1986 to 1996. His books include “The Brescia Air Show,” “Bohemia Bohemian,” “My Prague,” and “Dictators in the Cinema.” During the Second World War, Demetz survived deportation to a labor camp.