Uwe Wittstock: Marseille 1940
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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 refuge in France since 1933. Meanwhile, American Varian Fry arrives in Marseille to save as many of them as possible. It's the most dramatic year in German literary history. In Nice, Heinrich Mann listens to Radio Londres during a bomb alert. Anna Seghers flees Paris on foot with her children. Lion Feuchtwanger is imprisoned in a French internment camp as SS units close in. All eventually find themselves in Marseille, seeking a path to freedom. Here, Walter Benjamin hands his last essay to Hannah Arendt before fleeing across the Pyrenees. It is here that the paths of many German and Austrian writers, intellectuals, and artists intersect. And it is here that Varian Fry and his comrades risk their lives to smuggle persecuted people out of the country. Uwe Wittstock was born in 1955 in Leipzig. He worked for many years as an editor and literary critic for the "Frankfurter Allgemeine", "Welt", and "Focus". Since 2018, he has been an independent writer. His books "Februar 33" (2021) and "Marseille 1940" (2024) were included for months on Spiegel's bestseller list and have been translated into twelve languages. In 2025, his biography "Karl Marx in Algier" will be published by C.H.Beck. Georg Mein is a professor of modern German literature at the University of Luxembourg.
Where does it take place?
Institut Pierre Werner
Centre Culturel de Rencontre Abbaye de Neumünster
28 Rue Münster
2160 Grund Luxembourg
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