Kurt Tucholsky is one of Weimar Germany's most celebrated literary figures, loved by his many readers and hated by the Nazis. The poet, journalist, and satirist who was at the center of the tumultuous political and cultural world of 1920s Berlin still emerges as an astonishingly contemporary figure. But he was more than just an angry truth-teller; he was also one of the funniest satirical writers of his era, depicting everyday lives during the rise of modernity.The iconic translation of Harry Zohn, a literary figure from Vienna himself, presented Tucholsky to an American audience for the first time. Long out of print, Zohn's book is now being republished in a new edition.
Kurt Tucholsky made his name as one of the Weimar era's most acid, incisive satirists; but to read this panoramic selection of essays, monologues, dialogues and aphorisms is to be reminded that he was also a brilliant literary shape-shifter, able to take on the persona of an embryo, a squirrel, a suite of pulp novels, or a prophet of post-apocalyptic hope with equal felicity. "In Europe, a man is a citizen once and an alien twenty-two times. A wise man is an alien twenty-three times," he wrote. His words sound alarmingly poignant today.
-- George Prochnik, author of "Stranger in a Strange Land: Searching for Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem"
Tucholsky's wit and his courage, his extraordinary sensitivity to language, and the timeliness of his writing have not waned a bit, even eight decades later.
-- Noah Isenberg, Professor of Culture and Media at The New School for Liberal Arts, New York City
Imagine a writer with the acid voice of Christopher Hitchens and the satirical whimsy of Jon Stewart, combined with the iconoclasm of Bill Maher. That's Tucholsky in a nutshell.
-- Anne Nelson, author of "The Red Orchestra" and "The Guys"
In Weimar Germany, Tucholsky was big, the most brilliant, prolific and witty cultural journalist of his time. He poured scorn on the reactionary institutions of the old regime, the follies of the Weimar Republic, and the peculiarities of the German character.
-- William Grimes, The New York Times
Tucholsky's writing is similar to that of Heinrich Heine, his role model, in that it appears superficially simple but is replete with hidden meanings. His works are touching, stirring, and precisely to the point.
-- Peter Appelbaum MD, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Pennsylvania State University
"Kurt Tucholsky was one of the most brilliant German Jewish writers and satirists of his time. The world has yet to discover his genius."
--Peter Schneider, author of The Wall Jumper and Eduard's Homecoming
Author Biography:
Kurt Tucholsky was a brilliant satirist, poet, storyteller, lyricist, pacifist, and Democrat; a fighter, lady's man, reporter, and early warner against the Nazis who hated and loathed him and drove him out of Germany after his books were burned in 1933. His contemporary Erich Kaestner called him a "small, fat Berliner," who "wanted to stop a catastrophe with his typewriter." The New York Times hailed him as "one of the most brilliant writers of republican Germany. He was a poet as well as a critic and was so versatile that he used five or six pen names. As Peter Panter he was an outstanding essayist who at one time wrote topical sketches in the Vossische Zeitung, which ceased to appear under the Nazi regime; as Theobald Tiger he wrote satirical poems that were frequently interpreted by popular actors in vaudeville and cabarets, and as Ignatz Wrobel he contributed regularly to the Weltbühne, an independent weekly that was one of the first publications prohibited by the Hitler government." Tucholsky, who occupied the center stage in the tumultuous political and cultural world of 1920s Berlin, still emerges as an astonishingly contemporary figure. As an angry truth-teller, he pierced the hypocrisy and corruption around him with acute honesty. Imagine a writer with the acid voice of Christopher Hitchens and the satirical whimsy of Jon Stewart, combined with the iconoclasm of Bill Maher. That's Tucholsky in a nutshell. Like Hitchens, Tucholsky wrote a mixture of literary essays, social observations, and political commentary. His irony made the line between his "serious writing" and his "entertainments" almost invisible. The fashionable outsider watched the political "center" disappear, and, in the end, he found himself catapulted out of society altogether. His career was sandwiched between the two most deadly events of his century: the bloodbath of World War I and the scourge of Nazism. Just as the first war launched Hemingway's lifelong career as a wounded tough guy with a soft spot for guns and broads, Tucholsky discovered the reflexes of an escape artist. He was equally elusive as a writer. In today's world, a journalist isn't supposed to write plays, and a playwright isn't welcomed as a novelist. But in 1920s Berlin, Tucholsky was dealing with postwar realities that required shouting from the rooftops, and any rooftop would do. Harry Zohn (1923-2001) emigrated as a Viennese Jew to England in 1939 and to Boston, Massachusetts in 1940. He earned his Ph.D. at Harvard and taught at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1996. A prolific author, editor, and translator, his work focused on Austrian- and German-Jewish literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ralph Blumenthal was a correspondent of The New York Times from 1964 to 2009, including an assignment in West Germany in 1968-9. He is the author of four non-fiction books: Last Days of the Sicilians; Once Through the Heart, Stork Club; and Miracle at Sing Sing. He is now a Distinguished Lecturer at Baruch College of the City University of New York.
