Kurt Tucholsky: The Short Fat Berliner Who Tried to Stop a Catastrophe With a Typewriter

By Harold L. Poor, Belinda Davis and Chris Poor

Harold L. Poor's biography of the iconic German Jewish author, journalist, satirist, playwright, and poet is the most important and thorough work on Kurt Tucholsky in the English-speaking world—a labor of love by the Rutgers history professor that is still unmatched. For this book, Poor has not only spent years of research in American Universities, he also visited Tucholsky's widow Mary Gerold in her home in Germany, his family in tow, and unearthed materials, letters, and pictures that had previously been unpublished. This book is an entertaining and well-written gem that has finally been rediscovered.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Berlinica Publishing LLC
• Release date: Sep 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781935902843

Reviews for Kurt Tucholsky

[elliot1822 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kurt Tucholsky,The Short Fat Berliner Who Tried to Stop A Catastrophe With A Typewriter by the author Harold L. Poor was a new and fascinating look into the horrific history of our world that's being repeated again today from the halls of power in Washington, to Moscow, to Ankara, Eastern Europe, Manila and more unfortunately.This book is an introduction for readers into the heart and mind of a great man who saw a developing great wrong and pointed it out even with a great cost.Kurt Tucholsky was a was a , poet, storyteller, pacifist, a fighter, womanizer, one of the most famous journalists in Wiemar Germany, and an early harbinger against the hatred of the Nazis.He was and can be called the small, fat Berliner who wanted to stop a catastrophe with his typewriter. When Kurt Tucholsky wrote he had a number of voices—in the end, he had none. His books were burned and banned by the Nazis, who succeeded in driving him out of his country. But he is not forgotten. We must not forget him and continue his type of fight against the right wing hatred we see from Sea to Shining Sea and throughout the world today.

[nooiniin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kurt Tucholsky is such a household name in German literature, I wonder at myself for having yet to read any of his major works. I am thankful to Chris Poor for bringing this new edition of his father's "Kurt Tucholsky and the Ordeal of Germany 1914–1935" back to the audience.This book provides insightful details not only on Tucholsky's work and love life, but also explains the situation in the Weimar Republic both on a political and personal level, the privations and opportunities offered to the intelligentsia and challenges for the intellectuals and satirists.While some aspects may seem dated, the changing political climate with right-wing populist parties raising to influence not only in Germany call for pacifist and democratic resistance offered by men and women of Tucholsky's stamp. "Tucholsky is forgotten at our peril; in his essential form he is as relevant today as he ever was."