On this day in History, on August 20, 1945, Alexander Roda Roda died in
New York City. Roda Roda, whose full name was Alexander Friedrich
Ladislaus Roda Roda, was born in 1872 as Sándor Friedrich Rosenfeld. He
thought of himself as the "quintessential poet of Austria-Hungary". Roda
Roda was born in Moravia, went to school Slovakia, was drafted into the
military in Croatia, wrote for papers in Hungary, and lived in Vienna.
In the Austrian capital, he became a correspondent for Neue Freie Presse,
the paper Karl Kraus loved to hate. During WWI, the satirist ran into
trouble with the military censors of Austria who did not like his comedy
Der Feldherrnhügel (In translation: Grandstand for General Staff). After the war, he performed in cabarets in Berlin and Munich and he became tremendously successful.
Shortly before the annexation of Austria, the Jewish satirist fled the
Nazis to Switzerland, where he got expelled in 1940. He emigrated to New
York soonafter. Sadly, he was unable to regain his career; he died
impoverished in New York City in 1945. Friends brought his ashes back to
Vienna.
When Roda Roda entered the USA in 1940, this was not his first trip. He
had visited America, mostly New York City, in 1923 and wrote a book
about this, Frühling in America, Springtime in America. It is filled with many funny, and also some serious observations. Berlinica will publish the book at the end of this year!
In fall, we will publish a book by another Weimar author traveling to New York in the 1920s; Alfred Kerr's New York and London,
translated by Alan Bance, Professor emeritus of German, University of
Southampton, England. Stay tuned, we will keep you posted!
Springtime in America Author: Alexander Roda Roda
Translator: Cindy Opitz Cover Picture: Berenice Abbott Genre: Narrative Nonfiction Softcover; ca 140 pp. Dimensions: 5.5’’ x 8.5’’
ISBN USA: 978-1-935902-01-0
ISBN Germany: 978-3-96026-056-1 Suggested retail: $ 13.95 Release: 2025
An diesem Tag vor 80 Jahren, am 20. August 1945, starb Alexander Roda Roda in New York City. Roda Roda, dessen vollständiger Name Alexander Friedrich Ladislaus Roda Roda lautete, wurde 1872 als Sándor Friedrich Rosenfeld geboren. Er sah sich selbst als den „Inbegriff des Dichters von Österreich-Ungarn“. Roda Roda kam in Mähren zur Welt, ging in der Slowakei zur Schule, wurde in Kroatien zum Militär eingezogen, schrieb für Zeitungen in Ungarn und lebte in Wien.
In der österreichischen Hauptstadt wurde er Korrespondent für die Neue Freie Presse, die Zeitung, die Karl Kraus mit Leidenschaft hasste. Der Satiriker geriet in Schwierigkeiten mit der österreichischen Militärzensur, der seine Komödie Der Feldherrnhügel nicht gefiel (und die ihn verklagte). Nach dem Krieg trat er in Kabaretts in Berlin und München auf und wurde äußerst erfolgreich, mit Büchern und Filmen.
Kurz vor der Annexion Österreichs floh der jüdische Satiriker vor den Nazis in die Schweiz, wo er 1940 ausgewiesen wurde. Daraufhin emigrierte er nach Amerika. Leider konnte er seine Karriere nicht wieder aufnehmen und starb 1945 verarmt in New York City an Leukämie. Freunde brachten seine Asche nach Wien zurück. Er wurde auf dem Zentralfriedhof bestattet.
Als Roda Roda 1940 in die USA kam, war dies nicht seine erste Reise. Er hatte Amerika, vor allem New York City, bereits 1923 besucht und darüber ein Buch geschrieben: Ein Frühling in Amerika. Es ist voller lustiger, aber auch ernster Beobachtungen. Berlinica hat dieses Buch veröffentlicht, mit einem Vorwort von Kurt Tucholsky; die englische Ausgabe erscheint Ende dieses Jahres.
Ein Frühling in Amerika Geschichten aus der Neuen Welt Autor: Alexander Roda Roda Vorwort: Kurt Tucholsky Genre: Reisebericht Broschur, ca 170 Seiten Format: 140 x 216 cm Ladenpreis 10,50 € ISBN: 978-3-96026-050-9 USA: 978-3-96026-082-0 Erscheint Dezember 2021
On this day 64 years ago, the Berlin Wall went up. It was a surprise for the people of East Berlin who were suddenly trapped, but politicians in Germany and in America had a hunch of what was coming. John F. Kennedy, President of the USA at that time dreaded instability in the middle of the Cold War, when millions of people fled the Eastern bloc. He feared that the Soviet Union would militarily take over all of Berlin and force the U.S. Army out, especially since the CIA was using West Berlin as a spy post. A Wall was a hell of a lot better than a war was his thinking, based on advisors such as Senator William Fulbright, a Democrat from South Dakota. The rest is history.
If you want to know more about the Berlin Wall, its history and its aftermath, these are the two books Berlinica can offer.
The Berlin Wall Today Author: Michael Cramer Translator: Cindy Opitz Genre: City History Softcover, 102 color pages Dimensions: 8.5'' x 8.5’’ Sugg. Retail: $15.95, 16,00 € ISBN: 978-1935902-10-2 ASIN: B01FKTIW82 Release: Spring 2015
Berlin in the Cold War Author: Thomas Fleming Translator: Penny Croucher Genre: City History Softcover, 90 pages / 51 pics / 3 maps Dimensions: 7’’ x 10’’ Suggested Retail: $12.00 ISBN 978-3-96026-006-6
Es
war am 19. Juli 1988, als Bruce Springsteen sein legendäres Konzert in
Berlin-Weissensee gab. Das Buch zum Konzert schrieb Erik Kirschbaum. Er
sprach mit Fans und Konzertveranstaltern, darunter Jon Landau,
Springsteens langjähriger Freund und Manager. Mit Augenzeugenberichten,
Zeitungsausschnitten, TV-Aufnahmen und sogar Stasi-Akten sowie Fotos und
Erinnerungsstücken versetzt dieses fesselnde Buch den Leser und die
Leserin zurück zu einem der aufregendsten Rockkonzerte aller Zeiten, wo
The Boss live auf der Bühne eine Rede gegen die Mauer hielt, vor mehr
als 300.000 jungen Ostdeutschen
.
Pressestimmen:
“Dieses Buch belegt die Macht der Musik so klar wie niemals zuvor.” Dave Marsh, Musikkritiker des Rolling Stone
“Eine beeindruckend detaillierte Betrachtung eines kaum bekannten Zusammentreffens von Rockmusik und politischer Befreiung.” Eric Alterman, Autor von The Promise of Bruce Springsteen
“Der Boss inspirierte eine ganze Generation, für Freiheit zu kämpfen." David Crossland, Spiegel Online
“Springsteen ist immer noch bei uns—das Regime der DDR nicht.” Stephen Evans, BBC Kultur
“Für Springsteen war es ein Konzert, an das er sich immer erinnern würde." Kate Connolly, The Guardian
“Der Moment, auf den manche von uns ein Leben lang gewartet hatten.” Michelle Martin, Washington Post
Wir haben das Buch — die englischsprachige Ausgabe — nun neu herausgebracht, mit einem Vorwort von Mike Spengler, der damalige Hornbläser der E Street Band, in einem etwas größeren Format, und auf farbigem Glanzpapier. Es ist in jedem Buchladen bestellbar. Gedruckt wird es von der Firma Zeitfracht.
Today in 1988—Bruce Springsteen's Legendary Concert in Berlin
On July 19, 1988, The Boss gave his legendary concert in East Berlin that helped bring down the Wall. This is the story Erik Kirschbaum tells in Rocking The Wall, a book that explores how this changed concert the world. Kirschbaum spoke to scores of fans and concert organizers on both sides of the Berlin Wall, including Jon Landau, Springsteen's long-time friend and manager. With lively behind-the-scenes details from eyewitness accounts, magazine and newspaper clippings, TV recordings, and even Stasi files, as well as photos and memorabilia, this gripping book transports you back to those heady times before the Berlin Wall fell and gives you a front-row spot at one of the most exciting rock concerts ever. It takes you to an unforgettable journey with Springsteen through the divided city, to the open air concert grounds in Weissensee, where The Boss, live on stage, delivered a speech against the Wall to a record-breaking crowd of more than 300,000 delirious young East Germans full of joy and hope. Now back for sale everywhere were books are sold.
"It was cultural forces, not merely political or military ones, that won the Cold War for the West, and which may yet spring more oppressive regimes from the tyranny of the old and joyless. Young East Germans wanted their rock and roll; —Tris McCall, The Star Ledger, New Jersey
"...a glorious example of the influence that rock ‘n’ roll can have on people who are hungry and ready for change." —Michelle Martin for The Washington Post
Kirschbaum is convinced it was the most politically important rock concert ever held. His book makes a strong case that historians should explore Springsteen's impact in fuelling the revolution. —David Crossland, Der SPIEGEL, Germany
Springsteen is still with us. The regime of the German Democratic Republic is not. —Stephen Evans, the BBC
In telling the back story of how the concert came to be, “Rocking the Wall” also offers a fascinating historical snapshot of East German Communist cultural officials scrambling to contain the brewing political restlessness all around them. —Vanessa Fuhrmanns, The Wall Street Journal
"Once in a while you play a place, you play a show that ends up staying inside of you, living with you for the rest of your life," he said. "East Berlin in 1988 was certainly one of them." —Kate Connolly, The Guardian
"What was intended by East Berlin’s hard-line leadership as a pacifier for their people, Kirschbaum argues, had the opposite effect and turned into a powerful agent for change." —Derek Scally, The Irish Times
On May 8, 1945, World War II ended in Europe with the capitulation of Germany (and Austria) after the Soviet Union had conquered Berlin days earlier. The war itself would only end on September 2, 1945, when Japan capitulated after America dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
World War II had started more than five years earlier, when Germany and the Soviet Union—allied in the Hitler-Stalin-pact—had invaded Poland in September 1939. It was the bloodiest war in history: Approximately 60 million people were killed, including six million European Jews. Germany lost about ten million people including those killed by Hitler, and the Soviets around 20 million people, including those killed by Stalin.
The end was especially brutal: In the battle for Berlin, hundreds of thousands Soviet and German soldiers died, some only 16 and 17 years old. Two million women were raped by the Red Army. More than two million German civilians, many of them refugees, would perish in 1945 and later.
While the Soviets took Berlin, the U.S. Army under the command of Dwight D. Eisenhower waited at the river Elbe for two more months, about 50 miles west of Berlin. This was a promise Franklin Roosevelt had made to Stalin in Yalta earlier, to allow the Soviet leader to take the German Capital. Churchill felt uneasy about this already, and Eisenhower was on the fence, but Harry Truman, FDR's successor, decided to go along with it.
The U.S. Army arrived in Berlin in July 1945, together with the British and the French Army. Berlin was divided in four zones of occupation. Alas, the friendship of the four victorious Allies lasted for three years only, until the Soviet blockade of 1948. Nevertheless, all four Allies would govern Berlin together until the Wall came down in 1989.
But what happened in those months 80 years ago? Pictures of those times, together with a short historic overview, can be found in Berlin 1945. World War II: Photos of the Aftermath, by Michael Brettin and Peter Kroh. The pictures have been taken by Soviet solders and Germans in their employ, and were collected by Berliner Verlag, With a preface by Stephen Kinzer, formerly the New York Times' Berlin bureau chief.
On May 3, from 12pm to 5pm, Berlinica Publishing will participate in the ninth annual Indie Lit Fair, co-presented by the PEN World Voices Festival and the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP). It will take place south of Astor Place, on the sidewalk of Lafayette Street, between Astor Place and Joe’s Pub. You can stroll — the festival is free and open to the public — and you can also buy books. You can get Berlinica books at a discount.
The Indie Lit Fair celebrates the vitality and diversity of independent literary publishing. In addition to Berlinica, the 2025 lineup of independent presses and literary magazines includes 128 Lit, Alice James Books, Contra Mundum Press, The Evergreen Review, Fence / Fence Books, Fiction, Get Fresh Books, Indolent Books, Sagging Meniscus Press, Solid Objects, and Under the BQE.
