To escape the poverty of his childhood and youth after the early death of his father, Konrad Merz attended evening secondary school and even began to study law. But after the Nazis came to power, he was no longer able to continue his studies due to his Jewish background. In 1934 he fled to the Netherlands and initially worked as a gardener. In Amsterdam, he began to write and used his experience as an exile for a novel. Kurt Lehmann—his real name—published the novel Ein Mensch fällt aus Deutschland (A Man Falls out of Germany) under the pseudonym Konrad Merz to protect his mother in Germany. The expressionist novel was a surprising success. When the Germans invaded the Netherlands, Merz was once again subject to persecution and was forced into hiding for several years, only surviving with help of acquaintances. He did not return to Germany after the war, the pain over the death of his mother murdered in Auschwitz was too great. According to Merz, he forgot how to write during these years. It wasn’t until the 1970s that he began writing again. His autobiography is entitled: A Berliner, An Amsterdamer, Oh, and Jew as Well.