Richard A. Bermann: Letter to Maud Ehrenstein (February 26, 1933)
Richard A. Bermann: Letter to Maud Ehrenstein (February 26, 1933)
The trouble you alluded to in your letter is by no means over and will last as long as the Hitlerite Pest that ravages Central Europe.
Letter from Richard A. Bermann to Maud Ehrenstein, 1933
The author and journalist Richard A. Bermann felt that the Nazi seizure of power put his lifestyle at risk, and returned to his homeland Austria. There he was convinced by the Hungarian explorer Ladislaus Eduard von Almásy to accompany him on an expedition to the Libyan desert. This offer came at exactly the right time for Bermann, in light of the coming changes to Central Europe: as his travel journal shows, the trip was not only an expedition, but also an escape from the new reality.
Bermanns letter is addressed to Maud Ehrenstein, the wife of the English literary agent Carl Ehrenstein, and indicates that Bermann’s friend, the actress Elisabeth Bergner, was already in exile in London. She knew Carl Ehrenstein through his brother Albert Ehrenstein, a prominant writer and poet of Expressionism.
Further reading:
Richard A. Bermann alias Arnold Höllriegel. Österreicher – Demokrat – Weltbürger. Eine Ausstellung des Deutschen Exilarchivs 1933-1945. Die Deutsche Bibliothek Frankfurt a.M. München u.a.: Saur 1995