Gabriele Tergit

English summary: Gabriele Tergit's (1994-1982) novel 'Kasebier erobert den Kurfurstendamm' (1931) which deals with the Berlin life of the Weimar Republic was an immediate success. Forced to go into exile after the national socialist take-over of power, Tergit went first to Prague, then with her husband to Palestine and finally to England . There she was secretary of the German Exil PEN Club from 1957-1981. Her Jewish family saga 'Effinges', in many ways a Jewish counterpart to Thomas...
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English summary: Gabriele Tergit's (1994-1982) novel 'Kasebier erobert den Kurfurstendamm' (1931) which deals with the Berlin life of the Weimar Republic was an immediate success. Forced to go into exile after the national socialist take-over of power, Tergit went first to Prague, then with her husband to Palestine and finally to England . There she was secretary of the German Exil PEN Club from 1957-1981. Her Jewish family saga 'Effinges', in many ways a Jewish counterpart to Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks, about the German Jewry in the 19th and 20th centuries, could not be published until 1951. The importance of Gabriele Tergit lies just as much in her exemplary life as a Jewish exile author, her continued literary work in exile and in her work as the secretary of the German PEN center in London. Thus the book does not only deal with the life and work of a German writer, but with a Jewish author from Berlin whose career was derailed by National Socialism, who, in spite of the vicissitudes of exile, ontinued to work. Her life and work have thus paradigmatic significance.German description: Gabriele Tergits (1894-1982) Roman uber das Berlin der Weimarer Republik Kasebier erobert den Kurfurstendamm (1931) war ein unmittelbarer Erfolg. Ihr judischer Familienroman Effingers, in vieler Hinsicht ein judisches Pendant zu Thomas Manns Buddenbrooks, konnte jedoch erst 1951 veroffentlicht werden. Durch die nationalsozialistische >Machtergreifung< schon 1933 ins Exil gezwungen, floh Tergit zunachst nach Prag, dann mit ihrem Mann nach Palastina und schliesslich nach England wo sie von 1957 bis 1981 Sekretarin des PEN-Zentrums deutschsprachiger Autoren im Ausland war. Hans Wagener zeichnet mit seiner Studie das Leben und Werk einer judischen Autorin nach, deren Karriere durch den Nationalsozialismus aus der Bahn geworfen wurde und die trotz aller Widrigkeiten ihres Exils unermudlich weiter an ihrem literarischen iuvre gearbeitet hat. Eindrucklich und umfassend hebt Wagener zugleich die paradigmatische Bedeutung Gabriele Tergits fur ihre Zeit hervor.