Meet the Author with Uwe Wittstock: Marseille 1940

International Online Book Club|Reading & Discussion

Online Online | Goethe-Institut Amsterdam, Amsterdam
Language German
Price Free admission
Part of series: #MeetTheAuthor - International Book Club

Wittstock: Marseille 1940 © C.H. Beck / Canva

On 18 March 2025, author Uwe Wittstock will be a guest at our international book club #Meet the Author. He will present his book Marseille 1940 - The Great Escape of Literature and talk about it with Christoph Buchwald, publisher of the Amsterdam-based Cossee publishing house.
The Dutch translation of Marseille 1940 was published by Cossee. The book was translated into Dutch in 2024 by Michel Bolwerk: Marseille 1940. De grote exodus van kunst en literatuur.

Marseille 1940 - The great escape of literature

June 1940: Hitler's Wehrmacht has defeated France. The Gestapo is searching for Heinrich Mann and Franz Werfel, Hannah Arendt, Lion Feuchtwanger and countless others who have found asylum in France since 1933. Meanwhile, the American Varian Fry arrives in Marseille to rescue as many of them as possible. Uwe Wittstock tells the harrowing story of their escape at deadly risk.
It is the most dramatic year in German literary history. In Nice, Heinrich Mann listens to the news on Radio London during a bomb scare. Anna Seghers flees Paris on foot with her children. Lion Feuchtwanger is imprisoned in a French internment camp while the SS units close in. They all eventually end up in Marseille in search of a way to freedom. It is here that Walter Benjamin delivers his last essay to Hannah Arendt before setting off on his escape across the Pyrenees. This is where the paths of numerous German and Austrian writers, intellectuals and artists crossed. And it was here that Varian Fry and his fellow travellers risked life and limb to smuggle the persecuted out of the country.

Registration

Please register here. You will then receive a link to the online live session.

Author

Uwe Wittstock is a writer and journalist and was editor of Focus until 2018. He previously worked as a literary editor for the FAZ, as an editor at S. Fischer and as deputy head of the features section and cultural correspondent for Die Welt. He was honoured with the Theodor Wolff Prize for Journalism.

Moderation

Christoph Buchwald, born in 1951 in Tübingen, has been the permanent editor of the Jahrbuch der Lyrik since 1979. After studying art history, literature and experimental composition, he worked as an editor and translator. Today he is the publisher of the literary publishing house Cossee in Amsterdam. Christoph Buchwald also works as a translator from Dutch. He lives in Amsterdam.

Technical requirements

We use Zoom for our meeting. We recommend the use of a headset, as loudspeakers can produce disruptive echo effects. Participation is possible from PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device. To participate, simply follow the link we will send you after registration and log in to the room.