Reading: Feuchtwanger Diaries

During his lifetime, German-Jewish novelist Lion Feuchtwanger claimed not to keep a diary. Yet, in the 1990s, a treasure trove of his diaries from the years 1906-1940 was found in the apartment of Feuchtwanger’s long-time secretary Hilde Waldo. Now, for the first time ever, these diaries have been published by Aufbau publishing house in Berlin, allowing us to get to know Feuchtwanger as a chronicler of his life and of a central part of German history. As an outspoken critic of the national-socialists, Feuchtwanger, who was on a reading tour in the U.S., could not return to Germany when Hitler became chancellor in January 1933. Instead, he and his wife Marta went into exile in the south of France where he was able to continue his success as a writer and as a resistance fighter, and where he continued to quench his thirst for love affairs and life in general.  

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