Kurt Tucholsky
(1890-1935)

Died aged c. 45

Kurt Tucholsky (German: [kʊʁt tu.ˈxɔls.ki]; 9 January 1890 – 21 December 1935) was a German journalist, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Tucholsky was one of the most important journalists of the Weimar Republic. As a politically engaged journalist and temporary co-editor of the weekly magazine Die Weltbühne he proved himself to be a social critic in the tradition of Heinrich Heine. He was simultaneously a satirist, an author of satirical political revues, a songwriter and a poet. He saw himself as a left-wing democrat and pacifist and warned against anti-democratic tendencies – above all in politics, the military – and the threat of National Socialism. His fears were confirmed when the Nazis came to power in January 1933. In May of that year he was among the authors whose works were banned as "un-German", and burned; he was also among the first authors and intellectuals whose German citizenship was revoked. According to Istvan Deak, Tucholsky was Weimar Germany's most controversial political and cultural commentator, who published over 2,000 essays, manifestos, poems, critiques, aphorisms, and stories. In his writings he hit hard at his main enemies in Germany, whom he identified as haughty aristocrats, bellicose army officers, brutal policemen, reactionary judges, anti-republican officials, hypocritical clergyman, tyrannical professors, dueling fraternity students, ruthless capitalists, philistine burghers, opportunistic Jewish businessmen, fascistic petty-bourgeois, Nazis, even peasants, whom he considered generally dumb and conservative….He is admired as an unsurpassed master of satire, of the short character sketch, and of the Berlin jargon. His literary works were translated to English, including the 1912 Rheinsberg, subtitled Ein Bilderbuch für Verliebte (A storybook for lovers), and the 1931 "sommer story" Schloss Gripsholm.

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