Revisiting Rheinsberg: Love Before the Great War

Fans and friends of Berlinica, we have exciting news: Rheinsberg, Kurt Tucholsky's first novel comes out in English; it will be presented on May 13 at 7pm at the Deutsches Haus at NYU in New York at 42 Washington Mews. See more here. The presenter will be Noah Isenberg, Professor of Culture and Media at the New School for Liberal Arts. When the book came out in 1912, Tucholsky, together with his friend Kurt Szafranski openend a “Bücherbar” (book bar) on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, where the lucky buyers of Rheinsberg also received a free shot of schnapps. Not breaking with tradition, Deutsches Haus at NYU will stage a reenactment of this historic precedent.

Here is more about the book: One summer before World War I, a young couple escapes the daily drudgery of their life in Berlin for a romantic weekend getaway to the town of Rheinsberg. They spend three days in the midst of a rural landscape filled with country houses and castles, cobblestone streets, lush forests, and dreamy lakes. The story of Wolfie and Claire told with a fresh, new style of ironic humor, became Tucholsky’s first literary success and gave an entire generation a new blueprint for love. Kurt Tucholsky was one of the most renowned journalists and satirists of the Weimar Republic and a pacifist who sounded an early warning against the growing threat of National Socialism.