were patrons and where he got acquainted and befriended with many of them. In 1912, Friedell went to Berlin, wrote and performed in cabarets. In 1913, he temporarily worked as an actor for director Max Reinhardt. In 1914, suffering from alcoholism and obesity, Friedell was forced to undergo treatment at a sanatorium near Munich. Friedell was enthusiastic about the beginning of World War I, as were many of his contemporaries, and volunteered for military service but was rejected for physical reasons. In 1916, he officially changed his name to Friedell. Friedell published the Judas Tragedy in 1920 and it was staged at the Burgtheater in 1923. In 1922 published Quarry — Miscellaneous Opinions and Quotations. In 1924, while working as a critic for the journal Stunde, Friedell was fired as a "traitor", for making satirical remarks. Between 1919 and 1924, Friedell worked as a journalist and theatre critic for various publishers including Die Schaubühne, Der Merker and Neues Wiener Journal. Between 1924 and 1927 he was ensemble cast at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna, which was directed by Max Reinhardt. There he played, amongst others, roles in The Servant of Two Masters, Fanny's First Play, Intrigue and Love, The Merchant of Venice. He played with famous actors such as Hans Moser and Heinz Rühmann. After 1927, health problems prevented any permanent commissions, and he worked as an independent essayist, editor and translator in Vienna. Among the authors Friedell translated were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Christian Friedrich Hebbel in 1909, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Thomas Carlyle and Hans Christian Andersen in 1914, Johann Nestroy, and Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1924. During his life he published 22 works with 15 different publishers. Additionally, he wrote for 17 different journals and newspapers. Since 1937, he worked on two unfinished books, which only were left as sketches: History of Philosophy and Novel on Alexander the Great. Cultural history Cultural History of the Modern Age During the early 1920s, Friedell wrote the three volumes of his Cultural History of the Modern Age, which describes events from the Black Death to World War I in an anecdotal format. In 1925, publisher Hermann Ullstein received the first volume, but was suspicious of the historiography of an actor. Five other publishers subsequently rejected the book. The first volume was finally published by Heinrich Beck in Munich in 1927 and the following two volumes in 1928 and 1931. The