Accent roles
For actors it was particularly difficult to find work in exile in foreign-speaking countries. While many emigrants, to the USA for example, picked up day-to-day English relatively quickly, their accents generally betrayed their origins.
Afrika
At the time of the Nazi regime in Germany, most of the African continent was still marked as the territory of European colonial powers.
Aid organisations
Fleeing from the Nazis and aiding those who fled during Nazi ruleDuring Nazi rule there were many aid organisations that provided rescue and refugee assistance to emigrants. They worked at international, national or regional level and were often religious, Zionist or connected to a political party or movement.
American Guild for German Cultural Freedom
The American Guild for German Cultural Freedom was an aid organisation for German artists and intellectuals. Prompted by Prince zu Loewenstein, it was founded as part of the Deutsche Akademie im Exil [German Academy in Exile] in the USA in 1935.
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) was originally founded in 1914 to help Jewish victims of the First World War. In the interwar years, the focus of the Jewish-American organisation was initially on the impoverished Jewish communities in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung (AIZ) / Workers’ Illustrated Newspaper
An illustrated publication offers resistance in exileOne of the illustrated newspapers in the Weimar Republic with the strongest circulation was the Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung (AIZ), which was published in Berlin as a Communist propaganda paper. The history of the AIZ is closely linked to its publisher and founder Willi Münzenberg.
Architecture
The expulsion of artists from Germany and Austria by the Nazi regime affected every occupational group within architecture, from freelance architects and municipal planning directors to evaluators and university instructors. With the Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums [Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service] from April 1933, many architects lost their tenures in administrative positions.
Argentina
Exiles who went to Latin America found refuge in Argentina in particular. This was due to the liberal immigration policy of the country, which gave foreigners the same rights as citizens.
Artists‘ International Association
The Artists' International Association (AIA) was founded in 1933 as a politically and socially committed organization of left-wing artists in London; it was subsequently reorganized in 1935. It was an association of painters, sculptors, graphic artists, craftspeople, designers, art educators, art students, art historians and curators who supported cooperation between artists in furtherance of the goals of peace and democracy.
Austria
In the first weeks after the Nazis came to power, many of the politically persecuted left Germany for neighbouring Austria in the way described by Loewenstein. Many refugees wanted to watch for developments in Germany from geographically proximate Austria for the time being.
Autobiography
Large numbers of exiled authors and artists in other media wrote autobiographies. Many of them described themselves in their works as “representatives of their generation” (Richard Critchfield, “Some reflections on the problems of exile autobiography” („Einige Überlegungen zur Problematik der Exilautobiographik“), Jahrbuch Exilforschung, 1984).
Bauhaus
The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius as a school of design in Weimar with the aim of unifying art and handcrafts. The training course consisted of theoretical and practical instruction in the furniture-making, weaving, metal, wall painting, typography, ceramics, stage and sculpture workshops.
Black Mountain College
The Black Mountain College aimed to guide young people in finding their own individual path to the arts. Potential was discovered and promoted through joint working and experimentation. Students and teachers organised both the lessons and their everyday existence independently and democratically.
Book design
A varied culture of book design evolved in Germany in the first third of the 20th century. Font designers, book cover designers and illustrators with different styles and from different design schools took a lively artistic approach towards the overall presentation of a book, typography and cover design.
Brazil
Immediately after the Nazis seized power in 1933, only few refugees from Germany considered Brazil as a country to flee to. It wasn’t until the persecution of Jews and opponents of the Nazis became increasingly severe, after the November pogrom of 1938 and after other countries began to severely restrict their immigration policies, that more and more refugees headed for Brazil.
Cabaret
The nature of cabaret lies, in part, in its criticism of political and social conditions. When the Nazis seized power in 1933 this art form faced profound danger. As early as 28 February 1933, the day after the Reichstag fire, the constitution was changed: freedom of opinion and right of assembly were restricted.
Café Le Tournon
Popular meeting place in the 6th Arrondissement Like the coffee houses and salons in Vienna and other cities, the cafés of Paris were attractive meeting places that played an important role for intellectuals and writers. For those living in exile, they often doubled as a study or reading room.
Camouflage publications
In order to protect their readers and distributors against reprisals, many texts that served the resistance were printed in neighbouring countries and circulated in Germany in a camouflaged form.
Casablanca
After the occupation of France in 1940 and the division of the country into an occupied and a free zone, the travel route of many refugees who wanted to go overseas shifted by necessity to the African continent. With the French ports on the Atlantic under German control and restrictive transit regimes in Spain and Portugal, people wishing to leave Europe frequently had no choice but to depart via the last free port in Marseille.
Changing occupation and work in exile
From artist to ...Few exiles had the international prominence or the financial wherewithal - e.g.
Children and adolescents in exile
According to UNHCR statistics, 35 million of the approximately 82 million people worldwide who left their countries of origin in 2020 were children and adolescents aged under 18. The numbers who left their countries during the Nazi era can only be estimated.
Children’s and young adult literature in exile
Many writers of books for children and adolescents struggled to get their work published in exile. As exiled children and young people were often quick to learn the language of their country of refuge, opportunities to have (old and new) works translated were also particularly important.
Cuba
The Caribbean country of Cuba accepted 6,000 to 8,000 refugees from Europe before it entered the war in 1941. Most of them were Jews. Almost all who sought refuge in Cuba were waiting for an onward journey to the USA.
Czechoslovakia
After the Nazis seized power in 1933, many of those who were politically persecuted first of all fled to the neighbouring Czechoslovakia. As Germans did not require a visa, it was relatively simple to enter the country. By 1938, between 10,000 and 20,000 exiles had fled into Czechoslovakia, among them about 5,000 Jews.
Dance in Exile
For artists, exile often means leaving their work or parts of it behind. For example, the buildings of an architect remain immovable in the country they have turned their back on.
Denaturalisation
A person becomes a citizen of a state either by origin or through a bureaucratic naturalisation procedure. A citizen is typically endowed with certain rights, such as the right to vote and the right of abode. If a person is “denaturalised”, he/she loses these rights together with his/her citizenship and may be expatriated.
Dominikanische Republik
In July 1938, the Évian Conference was held at the behest of American president Roosevelt to devise solutions for the ever-increasing flow of refugees after the annexation of the Sudetenland and Austria. Among conference attendees, only the Dominican Republic declared itself willing to accept up to 100,000 Jews.
Escape help
Human smugglers, migrant smugglers, escape helpersThe more hopeless it is for the persecuted to escape by legal means, the more important it becomes to help them flee. Escape helpers – individuals or organisations – often have to resort to illegal means to help people escape: they fake passports, pay bribes, make financial transactions, organise hiding places and secret border crossings.
Escape routes: the Pyrenees
After the defeat of France in the summer of 1940, the border between France and Spain, which stretches the length of the Pyrenees, became the most important escape route out of France. Since the French Atlantic coast was occupied by the Germans, most escapees took the route along the Mediterranean coast.
Escape routes: the Serpa Pinto
In May 1940, the Portuguese shipping company Companhia Colonial de Navegacão sent its newly acquired, renovated and converted steamer Serpa Pinto on its maiden voyage. The vessel had originally been built in Belfast in 1914 and had in the meantime been used for a multitude of purposes.
European Film Fund
Language aside, getting by in America depended on contacts and most of all money for many people in the film industry. Only a small portion of German emigrants managed to make it onto the studios’ payrolls.
Exile as a topic in the arts
From 1933 on, exile from the regions controlled by the Nazis put artists from all disciplines in the situation of a forced new beginning, and their creative responses to this new beginning varied widely. Those who were able to confront their exile as an object for artistic reflection perhaps took up the struggle to also penetrate the trials of flight, internment and exile intellectually, and perhaps also comment on them politically.
Exile Cinema
From 1933 onwards, the Nazis forced thousands of filmmakers to flee their own countries for reasons of racial discrimination or political persecution. Only a few of those who fled were able to continue with their work.
Exile press
German-speaking émigrés published some 400 newspapers and magazines in their countries of refuge during the Nazi era. Some of these publications had already been in existence before 1933, e.
Exile studies in Germany
What is it that exile studies deal with? The question about what subject matter exile research should deal with is one that has to be asked again and again. Today, in an era of migration, in which almost 3 percent of the world population is made up of international migrants according to the German UNESCO Commission, issues such as the impact of exile on the countries of origin and the receiving countries, and the transfer of knowledge and culture are matters of interest for the world of research.
Film
The “Golden Twenties” in Berlin coincided with a film boom: the young medium fascinated artists and writers, technicians and scientists from all over Europe, who cooperated to build the most creative, technically outstanding film production business of the age in Germany. Many of the films made there are regarded as milestones in cinematic history, even today.
First International Congress of Writers for the Defence of Culture, Paris 1935
In face of the threat posed by the Nazis, the Congress of Writers “for the defence of culture” took place in Paris in 1935 for the first time. Artists from all over the world responded to the appeal issued by a number of French authors and more than 250 participants from 38 countries attended the discussions that took place between 21 and 25 June every afternoon and evening.
Formalism debate
State control of the arts
Forms of anti-Semitism
From elements of anti-Judaism, the religiously-grounded antipathy towards Jews which accompanied Christianity from its inception, the 19th century saw the development of anti-Semitism, which also encompassed social and racist motives.
France
Many of the artists who stayed in Europe during the Hitler regime initially resided in France. On account of its liberal asylum policy, France had been seen as a traditional destination country since the 19th century and over 20,000 emigrants fled to France in 1933.
German Architects in Exile in Turkey 1933 – 1945
Building on the Bosphorus The foundation stones for career opportunities for German architects in Turkey after 1933 had been laid previously. The country had been undergoing major upheavals since the early 1920s.
German-language exile theatre in the Soviet Union
Until the middle of the 1930s, the Soviet Union offered excellent conditions for actors, directors and theatre musicians seeking exile. Amongst the population of the country, in the Caucasus, the Ukraine and the Volga German Republic, were German-speaking minorities and skilled German workers who had been working for some years in the Soviet Union.
Graphic work
In addition to more than 5,000 paintings, over 12,000 graphics, i.e. works on paper, were confiscated from German museums as “degenerate art”.
Great Britain
Right into the 20th century, Great Britain enjoyed a reputation as a liberal country for immigration and for those seeking asylum. However, by 1920, the British government severely restricted immigration laws, mainly to protect the domestic employment market.
Heinrich Heine-Klub in Mexico City (1941-1946)
The Heinrich Heine-Klub, an organisation of German-speaking anti-fascist intellectuals from different political camps, was founded in late 1941 in Mexico City. The idea to organise events, readings, concerts, lectures and theatre evenings was born at a meeting held in the home of the conductor Ernst Römer in the Colonia del Valle.
Home and homeland
What is it we yearn for when we are homesick? Where is home? Is home the place we were born in? Is it possible to find a new home? Can emigrants and those living in exile find a home in exile?
Internment
Refugees become “enemy aliens”At the beginning of the Second World War many countries interned so-called “enemy aliens”. This meant that all Germans living in a country were arrested.
Internment camp at Les Milles
After World War II broke out, the French government ordered that Germans and Austrians living in France be interned. Many of them had fled from Nazi Germany because of racist or political persecution to find refuge in their neighbouring country, where they were now seen as “enemy aliens”.
Jewish emigration
Jewish emigration involved people from a very heterogeneous population group. They often had little in common except the fact of their Jewish identity as asserted, or rather, alleged by the Nazi regime. The racial policies of the Nazis assigned numerous people the label of “Jewish” who themselves did not identify with Judaism in the least. This caused a conflict of identity for many assimilated Jews who considered Germany to be their homeland.
Kulturbund Deutscher Juden (Cultural Federation of German Jews)
Cultural life between self-assertion and persecutionThe “Kulturbund Deutscher Juden” was founded by the doctor and conductor Kurt Singer in Berlin in 1933. The aim was to create earning opportunities for the many Jewish artists and academics dismissed from their place of employment when the “Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums” (“Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service”) was passed.
Language
Language is a repository of memories and experiences. It is the bearer of breeding and culture, and the central access to social life and structure.
Letters
Letters from exile: what distinguishes them from those written at home or on holiday?
Lisbon
The waiting room of EuropeUnder the dictatorship of António Oliviera Salazar, Portugal was never a land of exile during the Nazi era. Although there were a few exceptions, from the outset the authoritarian regime was massively opposed to the influx of immigrants and refugees.
Literary prize competition
American Guild for German Cultural Freedom, 1937-1939The American Guild had planned the literary prize competition since its inception, as shown by the eleven page Plan of Action from April 1936. The actual implementation started at the beginning of 1937.
Literature
What is it that sets literature apart as an art form and what happens to literature when an author is forced into exile?Literature is characterised by writing and by language and, like all arts, it depends on a public. Narrated worlds adhere to their own rules of space and time.
Living conditions and everyday life in exile
People who go into exile leave a lot behind, especially if they have to escape quickly. In their families, often the only ones who can follow are direct relatives like husbands/wives and children; possessions and social networks are left behind.
Marseille
When the German army marched into France in the summer of 1940, the country ceased to be a safe place of exile. German occupation triggered off a mass exodus to the “zone libre” in the South of France. However, German émigrés were not even safe there for long, as Pétain, the French head of state, was obliged under the ceasefire agreement to extradite on demand.
Mascha Kaléko Online
Young MuseumThe Jewish writer Mascha Kaléko (1907-1975) had to escape from Germany during the time of National Socialism just as many other Jews. Only in 1938, almost in the last minute, together with her husband, Chemjo Vinaver and their 2 year old son Steven, they boarded on a train to Paris. From there, their journey went on until they reached New York.
Matters of Exile
Project in the frame of the Kinderland Foundation's "Cultural Academy for Literature"In the Kinderland Foundation's "Cultural Academy for Literature" with Silke Scheuermann and Matthias Göritz during the carnival holidays 2013, 20 students in the age of 12 to 15 years have discussed and written about exhibits from the Museum of Modern Literature, which all point out to one topic: What is exile?
Mexiko
Relatively few German-speaking emigrants fled to Mexico compared to those in other Latin American countries. About 3,000 German-speaking refugees found refuge there, most of them between 1940 and mid-1942, including writers and artists who had been in exile in France from 1933-1940.
Mills College
Port of call in CaliforniaThe history of Mills College in California dates back to the year 1852. The establishment, which is located in Oakland near San Francisco, was given its current name in 1875.
Moscow
Moscow was a major destination for exiles, particularly for the German Communists who were forced to leave from 1933 onwards. However of the 4,600 or so German emigrants who arrived in the Soviet Union, only a small number were able to live in the capital.
Music
Many musicians were forced out of work by occupational bans when the Nazis took over power. As many orchestras and opera houses in Germany were state institutions, it was relatively easy for those in power to establish an overview of Jewish and politically undesirable musicians.
Neue Deutsche Blätter
Wieland Herzfelde’s exile newspaperWieland Herzfeld, the founder of the publishing house Malik-Verlag, not only published books in exile in Prague, he was also the editor of the exile journal Neue Deutsche Blätter, which was published from 1933 onwards by the newly founded Faut-Verlag. Since as a foreigner, however, he was not permitted to found himself a publishing house in Prague, acquaintances of F.
New York
For most exiles, the largest city in the USA was their first stop after arrival. The immigration authorities on Ellis Island inspected the papers of all who arrived. Anyone travelling with incomplete documents could be detained on the island for days on end. More than half of the German-speaking refugees who arrived in in the 1930s, around 70,000, stayed in New York.
Nuremberg Laws
Discrimination and persecution of the Jewish population was anchored at the state level in the first years of the dictatorship: by law Jews were reduced to second-class citizens and, step by step, ostracised from all areas of public life.
Oskar Pastior - Between Worlds
Not being able to write openly, because snitches of the secret service are lurking around: From 1957 till 1968, the German-Romanian author Oskar Pastior (1927-2006) lived with the haunting fear to be arrested and to be sent to jail.
Pacific Palisades
Weimar beneath palm treesAfter New York, the Californian town of Pacific Palisades became one of the most important locations for artists who emigrated to the USA. Many of them who had already gathered in exile at the French town Sanary-sur-Mer met in California again, among them Bertolt Brecht, Lion Feuchtwanger and Franz Werfel.
Palestine/Israel
In the 1st century A.D., the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and most of the Jews left the Palestine region and went into exile.
Paris
In France, Paris was the centre for exiles who sought refuge there after 1933. Following a veritable wave of people fleeing in the first months of the year, which saw 20,000 Germans alone head into France, many exiles returned to Germany or fled further to other countries.
Passport
A passport is an official document which determines with certainty the identity, nationality and place of residence of a person. As an identity document it determines who is entitled to live where, when and for how long, and who may enter and leave.
Paul Kohner Agency
In a profile published in 1940, the German-language magazine Aufbau called him a “noble man”. In 1938 Paul Kohner from Austria-Hungary opened an artists' agency on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
Photography
Photographers who were forced to go into exile experienced less difficulty working in their new environment than other visual artists or those whose medium was more closely linked to language, for example. On the one hand, the relatively young photographic medium had developed fewer national characteristics, which simplified the move to other market conditions and recipients.
Places and countries
Artists often have to leave their homeland because those in power consider them to be dangerous or because they belong to a persecuted group. But where can they go to when it is no longer safe for them in their own country? As far away as possible, so that they can work from a safe distance? Or to a neighbouring state, so that they do not lose touch with their colleagues, their public or their professional networks? What impact does such a move have on their artistic work?
Prague
Between 1933 and 1939 the Czech capital attracted a multitude of alienated artists who were forced to leave Germany. Those émigrés discovered in Prague a “solid literary-artistic basis” (Heumos, Czechoslovakia, 1998), a city formed by centuries of coexistence of Czech, Jewish and German cultures.
Press ban
Censorship, that is, the control of information that is to be passed on in either written or spoken form, is an instrument used often in totalitarian states to prevent the dissemination of undesired information. The Nazis also undertook measures to consolidate their power and gain control over all areas of public and private life.
Publishers
When the Nazis staged the book-burnings of 10 May 1933, the sent out an unequivocal message: they would decide in future what the German public should read and what not. Works by Jewish authors or those who were of a different mindset to the Nazis were to belong to the latter category.
Quota refugees
Quota refugees are refugees who are permitted to immigrate to Germany in set numbers on humanitarian grounds or under international law. After they enter the country, they receive a residence permit without having to undergo the asylum procedure; however, they are assigned a place of residence.
Reasons and causes of exile
There are different reasons for going into exile depending on the individual fate, but they are usually related to lack of freedom and human rights, suppression and persecution by state authorities. Most of the people who have to leave their home country have been politically persecuted or have even had their lives threatened by a regime.
Reception of the topic of exile in the arts
In January 2013, French performance artist Gilles Welinski had himself confined in a container for three days in Hamburg’s city centre. Between the hours of 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. he was exposed to the eyes of passers-by, who were able to observe him through spyholes.
Remigration
While emigration from the area under Nazi control was a mass phenomenon from 1933 on – it is estimated that 500.000 people left – the number who returned to their home country or to a neighbouring European country is much lower, as only a few thousand came back.
Remigration to the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR
Emigrants, especially those with a communist background, returned from Switzerland, Sweden, the Soviet Union and Great Britain to the Soviet occupation zone and later the GDR. It was not possible to leave Mexico, South America and the United States until 1946.
Resistance in the fine arts of exile
Using art as a means of spiritual resistance has always been an important part of artistic expression. There was also a wide variety of resistance in the fine arts of exile between 1933 and 1945.
Resistance in the literature of exile
There were many different forms of resistance in exile literature. Some of the writers who were forced into exile used their writing as a weapon against Nazism, clearly opposing its policies.
Rio de Janeiro
Artistic diversity under difficult conditionsAs the former capital of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, along with the other coastal cities of São Paulo and Porto Alegre, was often the first point of contact for immigrants arriving from Europe across the Atlantic. However, most of the German exile artists settled there only temporarily, most returning after the end of the war to Europe.
Saint-Cyprien internment camp
The Saint-Cyprien camp in southern France was hastily constructed in early 1939 for Spanish Civil War refugees in the coastal town of the same name. The Mediterranean Sea provided a natural border.
Sanary-sur-Mer
the capital of german literatureThe small fishing village of Sanary-sur-Mer on the southern coast of France was discovered as a holiday resort and place of residence by European intellectuals and artists after the end of the First World War. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, the small town between Marseilles and Toulon became a major attraction for German artists.
Schauspielhaus Zurich
After 1933, many actors who had to flee Germany found a new place of work at the Swiss Schauspielhaus in Zurich. The owner of the theatre, Ferdinand Rieser, helped numerous stage artists, including Leonard Steckel, who came to Zurich with his wife, dancer Jo Mihaly, to cross the border to Switzerland.
Shanghai
For many who only left Germany in 1938, after the November Pogroms, Shanghai became the last refuge. While more and more international borders were being closed, people could still enter parts of the city without a visa until 1941.
Steinberg Verlag, Zurich 1942–1972
Founded in 1942 in Zollikon, near Zurich, by sisters Selma and Luise (Lili) Steinberg, Steinberg Verlag was one of the few publishers in Switzerland that specialised in German-language exile literature during the Nazi era (the others included Oprecht Verlag and the three publishing companies – Humanitas, Die Liga, and Diana – founded by publisher Simon Menzel, husband of the third Steinberg sister Sophie Menzel).
Sweden
Refugee policy in a Sweden governed by social democrats was rigidly enforced until well into World War II. As in Switzerland, refugees were often only permitted to stay for a limited period.
Switzerland
Its immediate proximity to Germany, its long tradition of neutrality and its common language made Switzerland the most popular destination of those going into exile after the Nazis had seized power. As a result of several ordinances issued in March/April 1933, the numerous refugees seeking to enter Switzerland were subject to far-reaching restrictions.
The 1933 book burnings
Book burnings took place in many German towns and cities on 10 May, 1933 – only three months after the Nazis came to power. Lists compiled by librarian Wolfgang Herrmann, originally planned for a reorganisation of Berlin’s national and local libraries, were used to prepare such actions.
The aid organisation HICEM
HICEM was formed in 1927 by amalgamating the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) in New York, the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) in Paris and the United Jewish Emigration Committee (EMIGDIRECT) in Berlin. Its international branches provided information about living and working conditions in the destination countries, assisted refugees when communicating with the authorities, and helped finance their emigration.
The annexation of Austria in 1938
After Adolf Hitler forced the Austrian Federal Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg to step down on 11 March 1938 and German troops marched into the country the following day, Austria ceased to be an independent state, instead becoming part of the German Reich. These events were the culmination of a longer-term development that had begun in 1934 with the establishment of a fascist “corporate state” (“Ständestaat”) in Austria.
The Bermann-Fischer Verlag
When the Nazis took power, Gottfried Bermann Fischer, son-in-law of the founder of the publishing, ran the Berlin-based S. Fischer Verlag.
The black series (film noir)
While the careers of German and Austrian actors were severely limited due to their language and lacking popularity, and many European-trained screenwriters had their difficulties with American tastes, an impressive array of émigrés in the field of directing made their mark in Hollywood films of the 1940s. The “film noir” movement was shaped in large part by German-speaking directors.
The Cummington Story
Emigrants in film Cummington is a small town in western Massachussetts. From 1940 to 1944, the town was home to a hostel for European refugees, including German artists.
The Emergency Rescue Committee
Rescued from “Surrender on Demand” in FranceThe Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC) was established in late June 1940 in New York by German and American intellectuals, academics and scientists. The aim of the aid organisation was to rescue persecuted artists and politicians from France to the United States.
The emigrant cabaret Die Laterne in Paris (1934-1938)
The Free German League of Culture in Great Britain (1939-1946)
The Free German League of Culture (Freie Deutsche Kulturbund) in Great Britain was founded by German and Austrian emigrants in London on 1 March, 1939. Artists from the fields of music, literature, theatre and the visual arts as well as scientists joined together in this association.
The German PEN Club in exile 1933-1948
PEN stands for Poets, Essayists, Novelists. This international association of writers was set up in London in 1921. Its main objective was to bring together writers no matter what their origin, religion or nationality to contribute towards international peace efforts.
The Kolisch Quartet
The violinist Rudolf Kolisch had been in close contact with the composer Arnold Schönberg since 1919. He set up his own string quartet, originally known as the Wiener Streichquartett (Viennese String Quartet) for the concerts of Schönberg’s Viennese Society for Private Musical Performances.
The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
Only a few weeks after Hitler’s ascension to power, the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” was passed on 7 April 1933. According to it, civil servants who were active in opposition parties or had close ties to them could be dismissed.
The Netherlands
In the first months after Hitler seized power an estimated 15,000 German refugees crossed the border to the Netherlands – mostly under the guise of tourists or travellers en route to another destination. At the end of the first Nazi wave of terror, it was Jewish exiles in particular who returned to their home country.
The Oprecht Publishing House, Zurich
Bookseller and publisher, guardian angel and saver of lives, these characteristics were all united in the person of Zurich native Emil Oprecht. The output of Oprecht Publishing House between 1933 and 1946 included at least 145 books from 115 exiled authors, almost one third of its publications in those years.
The Other Germany
The very differing lifestyles and reasons for taking flight meant that German exiles after 1933 were not able to unite in one political formation. The many sections of society the Nazis discriminated against were reflected in the very heterogeneous composition of the refugees.
The performing arts
The performing arts include theatre, musical theatre, dance, fringe theatre forms like cabaret and some aspects of conceptual art (performance). How do performing artists gain a foothold in other countries, when living in exile means being in another cultural environment where the local language is not their own native tongue? What conditions need to be in place to make a new start in exile? What impact living in exile has on artists who work in the performing arts depends on the one hand on the form of art in question and, on the other, on the circumstances in which they can work and be productive, as well as on public tastes in the receiving country.
The publishing house Malik-Verlag 1917 – 1939
The publishing house Malik-Verlag was one of the most important publishers of left-wing as well as avant-garde literature and art in the Weimar Republic. Set up in 1917 as a newspaper publisher, it developed in the 1920s to become a publisher of books.
The publishing house Querido Verlag (1933-1940)
After the exodus of German writers in the spring of 1933, the Dutch publisher Emanuel Querido founded a German speaking division for authors persecuted and banned in Germany. The co-owner and head of this department was Fritz H.
The Rieucros internment camp
From October 1939 onwards and several months before the internment of “enemy foreigners” in France was expanded to include women, the French authorities began to intern foreign women whose politics apparently made them especially suspect at the Rieucros camp near the small town of Mende. Some emigrants who had come to France to escape National Socialist persecution were also brought to the camp.
The Salon of Alma Mahler-Werfel
Meeting place for emigrants in HollywoodIn the autumn of 1940, Alma Mahler-Werfel managed to flee with her husband Franz Werfel from the south of France to the USA. In January 1941, the Werfels moved to Los Angeles, which had been recommended by the writer Friedrich Torberg.
The Spanish Civil War and exile
Hope in the struggle against HitlerThe outbreak of the Spanish Civil War was triggered by a military coup led by General Franco against the government of the Spanish Republic on July 18, 1936. The subsequent suppression of the popular uprising by the Spanish population in many parts of the country triggered a wave of solidarity, especially among German emigrants.
The term “degenerate” in the art world
How a destructive idea developedTheories on the concepts of “degeneration” developed in the humanities and natural sciences in the 19th century and were eventually transferred to the arts. It was assumed that all art is organic in origin and therefore can be classified as “sound” or “abnormal”.
Theater
When an actor is unable to work in his native language, he lacks a fundamental means of expression. That is why, among theatre people, the exile situation interferes directly with their work. And yet despite this, some actors managed to find work and in many countries created their own cultural life in the German language.
USA
Several immigrants had submitted forms for asylum in the US as early as 1933. However early on, many believed that their exile would be of short duration.
Vichy Regime
As a result of the successful German Western Offensive in 1940, France became a divided country. The Netherlands, Belgium and France were defeated by Germany in an offensive attack carried out from May to 25 June, 1940.
Villa Romana
Although Italy in the years leading up to the Second World War was ruled by a fascist dictator, the government's policy concerning the arts was less repressive than under German fascism. As a result, many Germans working in the arts emigrated to places such as Florence.
Visual arts
Artists who expressed their sympathy for communist groups and ideals in the Weimar Republic were already subjected to Nazi persecution at an early stage and this led to the first waves of emigration from Germany. Others who had still held out in Germany, but who already had to deal with repression and professional bans (Berufsverbot) because they belonged to the avante-garde movement, realised in 1937 (at the latest) the danger they faced if they stayed in Germany, when the Nazis organized their propaganda exhibition against what they referred to as “Degenerate Art” (”Entartete Kunst”).
Volksfront (People's Front)
From 1932 until the beginning of the Second World War, the "Volksfront" was a coalition which united the opponents of the Nazis. In the 1932 Reich presidential campaign it included parties from the monarchists to the SPD and, in the referendum in the Saar region in January 1935, the Social Democratic Party of Saarland, the Communist Party, small left wing parties and factions of the German Centre Party.
Working and being productive in exile
Our image of the artist living in exile is often associated with the names of successful and well-known figures. But this is misleading, because making it as an artist in exile means overcoming a great many hurdles and many don’t make it.
