Today in 1945, Alexander Roda Roda left us

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