Weimar in exile

Provides a history of the artists and writers who left Weimar when the Nazis came to power. In 1933 thousands of intellectuals, artists, writers, militants and other opponents of the Nazi regime fled Germany, refusing to remain citizens in this new state that legalized terror and brutality. Exiled across the world, they expressed the fight against Nazism in prose, poetry, painting, architecture, film and theater. Palmier follows these lives, from the rise of national socialism to the return to their ruined homeland, retracing their stories, struggles, setbacks and rare victories. The dignity in exile of Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Bertolt Brecht, Alfred Doblin, Hans Eisler, Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann, Anna Seghers, Ernst Toller, Stefan Zweig and many others provides counterpoint to the story of Germany under the Nazis. --From publisher description.

Part one. Exile in Europe 1933-40: from Reichstag fire to Spanish War. Assassination of a culture -- The beginnings of emigration -- (Intellectuals' attitudes towards national Socialism -- The decision to emigrate -- Structural features of the Anti-Nazi emigration) -- The stages of exile in Europe -- (Exile in Czechoslovakia -- Exile in Austria -- Exile in the Netherlands -- Exile in Britain -- Exile in Switzerland -- Exile in Spain -- Exile in Scandinavia -- Exile in the USSR -- Exile in France -- Exile outside Europe: China, Turkey, Palestine) -- Exile as everyday tragedy -- (Legal problems of the émigré situation -- The economic survival of émigré -- Psychological effects) -- The organization of support -- First reflections on the meaning of the emigration -- The struggle against national socialism -- (Support for the German resistance -- The successes of anti-Nazi propaganda in exile -- Fear and misery of the Third Reich) -- Birth and decline of the Volksfront -- (The writers' congresses for the defense of culture -- Building the antifascist popular front -- The involvement of émigrés in the Spanish War) -- Press, publishing and literature in exile -- (Émigré periodicals -- Th…