Like many other Central European intellectuals of Jewish descent, Peter Weiss was forced to emigrate and arrived in Sweden in 1939. With works like Die Ermittlung (The Investigation, 1965) and Die Ästhetik des Widerstands (The Aesthetics of Resistance, 1975–81), he is one of the leading German-speaking writers of the 20th century. Weiss was also a visual artist and film-maker. His self-portrait in Prague (1938) has a Surrealist tone. Contrasting with the gloomy railway tracks and walls is the blue balloon, rising freely into the sky.