Annette Kolb (1) (1870–1967)

Annette Kolb, born Anna Mathilde Kolb, was a daughter of Max Kolb, a German landscape artist who claimed descent from a royal family, and his French wife Sophie Danvin, a pianist. Her maternal grandfather was a well-known French landscape painter. She grew up in Munich and spent the first years of her education in a convent school. She began writing at an early age. Her first book, a volume of essays, was published in 1899. During World War I, she was a deeply committed pacifist, and this activist resulted in her going into exile in Switzerland and then to France. She wrote novels that featured high society and later wrote nonfiction about musicians such as Mozart and Schubert. Her works were banned by the Nazi regime and she fled to the USA during World War II. After the war, she returned to Paris and also went back to Munich. She won the prestigious Goethe Prize in 1955.