Joseph Roth - What I Saw - Reports from Berlin 1920-1933

Literary anti-Semitism has existed in Germany since 1900. The racist anti-Semite Adolf Barthels, the moderate anti-Semite Paul Fechter, and many others attack the literary works of Jewish writers, often with personal invective. Certainly coarse and tasteless individuals may also be found among Jewish scribblers. But it is always these who are offered as the typical representatives of the Jewish writer! As early as 1918, before putting a book on display in their windows, provincial bookshop owners would ask if an author was Jewish — not even bothering to read it. And never — even though literary anti-Semitism was growing ever more virulent — did a Jewish author say anything publicly against it. There are strong and deep friendships between German Jewish writers and the best of the non-Jewish writers. A fine German stylist like Hans Carossa (not a Jew) was discovered and promoted by an admirable Jewish writer (though not one who wants to be named in this context). Let us remind our readers that Hans Carossa was the only non-Jewish German writer who refused to belong to the academy of the “Third Reich.” The German press was silent about this refusal, so nothing is known about it abroad either.

Many of us served in the war, many died. We have written for Germany, we have died for Germany. We have spilled our blood for Germany in two ways: the blood that runs in our veins, and the blood with which we write. We have sung Germany, the real Germany! And that is why today we are being burned by Germany!

Cahiers Juifs (Paris), September/November 1933

(from the French)

Archiv Ernst Thormann, Berlin: 40

Archiv Abraham Pisarek: 22

Bildarchiv PreuBischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin: 83, 94, 124, 177

Bundesarchiv Koblenz: 62

Deutshes Historisches Museum, Berlin: 182

Editor’s personal archive: 84, 116, 136, 140

Kiepenheuer & Witsch Verlag, K¨oln: 4

Landesbildstelle Berlin: 30, 51, 78, 104, 109, 129, 130, 178, 188, 194

Märkisches Museum / Stiftung Stadtmuseum, Berlin: 36, 92, 170

Ullstein Bilderdienst, Berlin: 70, 110, 152, 158, 206

Verlag Willmuth Arenh¨ovel, Berlin: 151

Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

Admiral’s Palace (steam baths), 69–73, 70

Adriatic Sea, 215

Albert’s Cellar, 56–57

Alexanderplatz, 31, 53, 57, 81

Altenberg, Peter, 212–13

Angels’ Palace (Café Dalles), 54–55

Annie (from Bavaria) (Gipsdiele friend), 60–61

Annie (from Silesia) (Gipsdiele friend), 60–61

Apache Fritz, 54

Ariosto, Ludovico, 184

Arminiusplatz, 81

“Arnhem” (char.), 183 n

Austria, 17, 179 n, 213, 215

Barthels, Adolf, 216

Baruch (middleman), 32–34

Becker, Carl Heinrich, 202

Beckmann, Frieda, 201

Beer-Hoffmann, Richard, 213

Berlin:

architecture and design of, 115–18

barbershop in, 130, 131–34

bicycle races in, 151, 160, 161–65

City Hall in, 111

department stores in, 109, 119–23, 120

election campaign in, 189–92

election propaganda in, 188

homeless in, 62, 63–68

nightclubs in, 170, 171–75

police station in, 79–82

Reichstag in, 177, 193–98, 194, 200, 203

roadwork in, 83, 98

Roth’s walk in, 23–27

skyscrapers in, 110, 111–14

traffic in, 97–103

triangular railway junction of, 104, 105–8

West End of, 138, 173, 174

Berlin Wall, 14

Bersin, Lieutenant Colonel, 67

Bienert, Michael, 13–14

Big Max (plasterer) (Gipsdiele friend), 60–61

Bismarck, Otto von, 202, 209, 210

Blumenthal, Oscar, 213

Brahe, Tycho, 213

Breslau, 13

Brod, Max, 213

Bruckner, Anton, 202

Brünningen, Hans Flesch von, 18

Budapest, 35, 56

Café Dalles (Angels’ Palace), 54–55

Café des Westens, 135, 137, 138

“Café Grössenwahn” (“Café Megalomania”), 136 n

Canaan, 49

Carossa, Hans, 217

Chesterfield, Philip Stanhope, Lord, 184

Cologne, 13

Conrad, Joseph, 18

Cracow, 33

Czechowski, Heinz, 20

d’Abernon, Lord, 196

Dante Alighieri, 70

Döblin, Alfred, 213

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 215

Drohobycz, 42

Düsseldorf, 13

East Prussia, 63, 186

Ebert, Friedrich, 20, 199–204, 199 n, 200

Elli (Café Dalles denizen), 54

Elsasser Strasse, 60

Else (Gipsdiele friend), 60

Erna (Gipsdiele friend), 61

Fechter, Paul, 216

Feuchtwanger, Lion, 214

France, 148, 179 n, 196, 215

Frank, Bruno, 213

Frankfurt, 13

Franz (burglar), 58

Fred (lightbulb thief), 59–60

Frederick the Great, 126, 127, 157 n

Friedrichstrasse, 69, 70, 73, 174

Fröbelstrasse, 63–65

Fulda, Ludwig, 213

Fürst, Geza, 18, 35–39

Galicia, 17, 37

Gay, Peter, 12

Georg B., 86–88

Gipsdiele, 60–61

Gipsstrasse, 60

Gleisdreieck, 20

Glorietta Hill, 18

Goebbels, Joseph, 197 n, 208, 212

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 11, 154, 184

Göring, Hermann, 208

Great Britain, 11, 72, 215

Grenadierstrasse, 19, 36, 36, 39, 42, 45–47, 46

Grete (Margot) (Gipsdiele friend), 60

Gustav, 59

Halensee Bridge, 157

Hamburg, 35, 38, 132

Hamsun, Knut, 18

Harden, Maximilian, 213

Hasenclever, Walter, 213

Hauptmann, Gerhart, 208

Hegemann, Werner, 126–28

Hermann, Georg, 213

Hermannplatz, 120

Heyse, Paul, 213

Hindenburg, Paul von, 195 n, 211, 212

Hiram, King of Tyre, 41, 44

Hirtenstrasse, 30, 31–34, 36, 42, 43, 56

Hitler, Adolf, 195 n, 208 n, 210, 214

Hofmann, Michael, 11–20

Hofmannsthal, Hugo von, 213

Hohenzollerns, 210

Holland, 37

Holstein, 66

Hungary, 35, 37, 56

Ibycus, 82

Isherwood, Christopher, 11

Italy, 196

Jarrell, Randall, 16, 19

Jerusalem, 45, 47

Jessner, Leopold, 201

Kafka, Franz, 213

Kaiserdamm, 162

Kant, Immanuel, 184

Karlchen (lightbulb thief), 59–60

Karstadt (department store), 109, 120

Kerr, Alfred, 213

Kessler, Count, 12

Kesten, Hermann, 214

Kiepenheuer, Gustav, 16–17

Kirchner, Ernst Ludwig, 18

Kirsch (burglar), 54–55

Kisch, Egon Erwin, 214

Koeppen, Wolfgang, 136 n

Königsallee, 139, 183

Königsberg, 13, 145 n

Königsplatz, 193, 202, 203

Kracauer, Siegfried, 214

Kraus, Karl, 213

Krug, Arnold, 201

Kruleweit, Franz, 201

Kurfürstendamm, 13, 15, 21, 22, 24, 29, 32, 116, 129, 139, 144, 146, 147–50, 157

Lasker-Schüler, Else, 213

Lenin, V. I., 215

Liebknecht, Karl, 12

Lindenpassage, 153

Linienstrasse, 59

Lissauer, Ernst, 216

Little Bertha (Gipsdiele friend), 60

Lloyd, Harold, 169

London, 18

“Long Hermann,” 59

Ludendorff, Erich von, 137, 195, 196–97

Luna Park, 157–59, 158

Luther, Martin, 185

Luxemburg, Rosa, 12

Mann, Klaus, 213

Mann, Thomas, 208, 213

Marcu, Valeriu, 214

Margot (Grete) (Gipsdiele friend), 60

Marx, Wilhelm, 202

Mehring, Walter, 214

Merkel, Hermann, 186

Mexico, 85

Miller, Henry, 18

Montefiore, Moses, 32

Mörike, Eduard, 131, 131 n, 134

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 202