Jan Tschichold: Schatzkammer der Schreibkunst (1945)
In July 1933, the typographer and book designer Jan Tschichold – after release and detention – succeeded in fleeing to Switzerland. With a partial work permit, he taught at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule in Basel and took on design jobs from publishers.
János Reismann: member of the Deutsches Gebietstheater Dnjepropetrowsk, photograph (1935/36)
A wandering troupe in Soviet exileThe Deutsche Gebietstheater Dnjepropetrowsk (German Regional Theatre Dnjepropetrowsk) was founded in 1935 at the encouragement of the culturally-interested politician Mendel Chatajewitsch in Dnjepropetrowsk, a Ukrainian industrial town between Kiev and Odessa. In this region there was a population descended from German immigrants who had never experienced German theatre before.
Jean Leppien: Dust jacket for Mit uns die Sintflut by Georg Friedrich Alexan (1935)
The painter Jean Leppien painted very little after fleeing from Germany to France in 1933. He tried to earn a living for himself and his girlfriend (the former Bauhaus student Suzanne Ney) by taking on work such as creating photomontages, designing posters, decorating shop windows and other odd-jobs.
Jean Leppien: Ein Blick hinaus (1987)
Jean Leppien's wife Suzanne was arrested on 21 March 1944 by the Germans. This is the day on which his autobiography begins.
Jo Mihaly upon setting up the “Schutzverband deutscher Schriftsteller” in Switzerland, list of names (1944)
In 1944, the dancer and author Jo Mihaly began establishing contact with German writers who had fled to Switzerland. Her goal was to reform the Schutzverband deutscher Schriftsteller (or “SDS”; English: “Association of German Authors”), a defunct labour union entity that had protected the interests of authors in Germany.
Jo Mihaly: 10 Monate im zerstörten Deutschland, speech manuscript (26 November 1946)
[10 months in ravaged Germany]Directly after the end of the Second World War, the writer and dancer Jo Mihaly decided to get involved in the cultural rebuilding of Germany. The schweizerisch-deutsche Kulturvereinigung Basel [Swiss-German cultural association] collected over 14,000 books and educational materials for Germany.
Jo Mihaly: Blume im Hinterhof, photograph (1931)
In this solo dance, which lasts just over two minutes, the dancer Jo Mihaly shows how a flower blooms in a dark courtyard, how it stands there pitifully for a time and dies shortly thereafter. Long stretches of the dance are performed kneeling.
Jo Mihaly: Fische fürs Volk [Fish for the People], Photograph (1935)
Upon emigrating with her husband, the actor Leonard Steckel to Switzerland in 1933, the dance performer Jo Mihaly was refused a work permit, as was the case with many German immigrants at the time. Mihaly could thus only continue to give her performances in private circles.
Jo Mihaly: Speech at the farewell event of the Kulturgemeinschaft der Emigranten in Zürich (1945)
The dancer and writer Jo Mihaly knew well that the lives of many emigrants were marked not just by material need. They also experienced a kind of “spiritual privation”.
Johannes R. Becher: Der Glücksucher und die sieben Lasten (1938)
Johannes R. Becher was the most-published German-speaking exile author in Moscow.
