Vicki Baum, Gabriele Tergit and Mascha Kaléko

In 1933, the rupture comes. The National Socialists destroy the free press and exclude Jewish people from German society. In doing so, they also destroy the world of life and work in which these three authors had made their names.

Vicki Baum (1888–1960) began her professional life as a harpist and, after a series of detours, became a writer. At Ullstein, she rose to become one of the most widely read authors of the Weimar Republic. She achieved international fame with the novel *Menschen im Hotel* (1929). In 1931, she accepted an invitation to Hollywood and later settled in California with her family.

Gabriele Tergit (1894–1982) reported from the Moabit Criminal Court for the *Berliner Tageblatt*. She showed how poverty and hardship drive people to court and how the political radicalisation of the Weimar Republic was reflected in the trials. Her novel *Käsebier erobert den Kurfürstendamm* (1931) was a great success. In 1933, she fled into exile to escape the Nazis. Her novel *Effingers* (1951) did not receive the recognition it deserved until decades later.

Mascha Kaléko (1907–1975) struck an unmistakable tone right from her very first poems: concise, brash, melancholic. Her ‘Lyrische Stenogrammheft’ (1933) established her as the voice of a young urban generation; this was followed in 1935 by the poetry collection ‘Kleine Lesebuch für Große’. That very same year, the National Socialists expelled her from the Reich Chamber of Literature. In 1938, she emigrated with her family to New York, where she wrote for the German-Jewish newspaper *Aufbau*.

The actresses Lola Giwerzew and Anna Seeberger bring the Berlin years of the three authors to life with dedication and a joy of performance, allowing them to speak for themselves. The result is a multi-layered, vivid portrait of three writers who observed their era with keen insight and shaped the literary tone of their time. Their works continue to surprise even today with their sharpness, wit and timelessness.

Lola Giwerzew studied German and French at the Free University of Berlin, as well as drama at the Thomas Bernhard Institute at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. A scholarship holder of the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerk, she has appeared at the Salzburg Festival, amongst other venues.

Anna Seeberger studied acting at the Thomas Bernhard Institute at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. From 2020 to 2025, she was a member of the ensemble at the Oldenburg State Theatre. A production of Chekhov’s *Three Sisters*, in which she appeared, won the Audience Award at the Körber Studio Junge Regie. In 2024, she made her directorial debut.