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A British Journal, 1935-1940. By Alfred Kerr
by Alan Bance (Volume editor) ©2024, Others, XXIV, 284 Pages German StudiesSeries: Exile Studies, Volume 23
Forced to flee Germany, the eminent drama critic, poet and fiercely vocal anti-Nazi journalist, Alfred Kerr, settled in London in 1935 and became deeply attached to the calm and decency he found in the «island people».
With much dry wit and some perplexity, his journal, translated here from German for the first time, savours the quirks and foibles of the enigmatic nation, wondering whether it will emerge at long last as the saviour of civilisation.
His humorous and perceptive observations span society – from aristocrats, politicians and literary figures like G. B. Shaw and H. G. Wells to the characters in pubs and courtrooms.
Enriched by his expertise in German classical culture, the journal traces the agony of an emigré following Britain’s prolonged attempts to appease the «brown war-menace», shrewdly interwoven with attempts to understand the British, «a mystery, even to themselves».
This is the longest ever thank-you letter from a migrant to Great Britain.
Alfred Kerr (1867–1948) was a leading Berlin-based theatre critic and journalist, whose writings and radio broadcasts made him a public intellectual in Germany, popularly known as the «Culture Pope». Of Jewish heritage, he was fiercely and openly anti-Nazi, so his exile in 1933 was lifesaving. He fled first to Switzerland, then to Paris and, finally, in 1935, to Britain, where his connections included G. B. Shaw and H. G. Wells.
Alan Bance, Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Southampton, has taught also at the universities of Graz, Strathclyde, St Andrews, Cologne and Keele. Among his many publications are The German Novel 1945–1960 (1980) and Theodor Fontane: The Major Novels (1982). His translations include Sigmund Freud’s Wild Analysis.
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