Vicki Baum, Gabriele Tergit and Mascha Kaléko

Women Chroniclers of Their Time. A Literary Collage with Lola Giwerzew and Anna Seeberger

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  Vicki Baum – Person mit dunklem Barett und hellem, texturiertem Mantel. Kurze, wellige Haare. Die Person blickt ernst. Hintergrund unscharf.

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  Gabriele Tergit – Person mittleren Alters mit kurzem dunklem Haar, Perlenkette und Ohrringen, lila Kleid mit weißer Blume. Text: © Doris Antony.

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  Mascha Kaléko – Person mit mittellangem, dunklem Haar blickt direkt in die Kamera. Gesichtsausdruck neutral. Schwarz-weiß Fotografie.

In the late 1920s, Berlin was the press capital of Europe. In its newspapers and magazines, three Jewish women writers carved out a public presence for themselves: Vicki Baum, Gabriele Tergit, and Mascha Kaléko wrote freely—as women in a male-dominated world, as chroniclers of a city in upheaval. Through reportage, feature articles, poetry, and novels, they tell of new freedoms and old injustices, of emancipation, popular culture, and social contrasts. With sharp insight and brilliant prose, they paint a picture of a society teetering between a new beginning and the abyss.

In 1933, the rupture comes. The Nazis destroy the free press and exclude Jewish people from German society. In doing so, they also destroy the world of life and work in which these three authors had become famous.

Vicki Baum (1888–1960) began her professional life as a harpist and, after a series of detours, became a writer. At Ullstein, she rose to become one of the most widely read authors of the Weimar Republic. She achieved worldwide fame with the novel *Menschen im Hotel* (1929). In 1931, she accepted an invitation to Hollywood and later settled with her family in California.

Gabriele Tergit (1894–1982) reported for the *Berliner Tageblatt* from the Moabit Criminal Court. She showed how poverty and hardship drive people to court and how the political radicalization of the Weimar Republic was reflected in the trials. Her novel *Käsebier erobert den Kurfürstendamm* was a major success in 1931. In 1933, she fled into exile to escape the Nazis. Her novel *Effingers* (1951) did not receive the recognition it deserved until decades later.

Mascha Kaléko (1907–1975) struck an unmistakable tone even in her earliest poems: concise, brash, and melancholic. Her “Lyrische Stenogrammheft” (1933) established her as the voice of a young urban generation; this was followed in 1935 by the poetry collection “Kleine Lesebuch für Große.” That same year, the Nazis expelled her from the Reich Chamber of Literature. In 1938, she emigrated with her family to New York, where she wrote for the German-Jewish newspaper *Aufbau*.

Actresses Lola Giwerzew and Anna Seeberger bring the Berlin years of the three authors to life with dedication and enthusiasm, letting the authors speak for themselves. The result is a multifaceted, vivid portrait of three writers who observed their era with keen insight and shaped the literary tone of their time. Their works continue to surprise readers today with their sharpness, wit, and timelessness.

Lola Giwerzew studied German and French at Freie Universität Berlin and acting at the Thomas Bernhard Institute at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. A scholarship recipient of the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerk, she has performed at the Salzburg Festival, among other venues.

Anna Seeberger studied acting at the Thomas Bernhard Institute at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. From 2020 to 2025, she was a member of the ensemble at the Oldenburg State Theater. A production of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters,” in which she appeared, won the Audience Award at the Körber Studio Junge Regie. In 2024, she made her directorial debut.

Next date:

• Date Wednesday, 18/November/2026 20:00
• Venue Neue Synagoge Berlin
• Address Oranienburger Straße 28-30, 10117 Berlin-Mitte