Exil

The Wartesaal Trilogy #3

by Lion Feuchtwanger

Not since The Oppermans has Feuchtwanger so successfully tapped the rich vein of current social problems as he does in this realistic picture of the German exiles in their new setting (in this case, Paris). ""Paris Gazette"" is the name of the journal run by the exiles, but controlled by a man who fears the repercussions of vitriolic pronouncements against the Nazis. Through the interlinking of the lives of men and women concerned, one gets highlights and shadows of an unreal new world, honeycombed with Nazi propagandists. The fight for principle, infinitely more important than the individual concerned, wrecks lives -- and they all face another period of rebuilding. A powerful and challenging book-not for hammock reading. [Kirkus Reviews]

Genres: Fiction, Classics, German Literature, Historical Fiction, Jewish

856 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Lion Feuchtwanger was a German Jewish emigre. A renowned novelist and playwright who fled Europe during World War II and lived in Los Angeles from 1941 until his death.

A fierce critic of the Nazi regime years before it assumed power precipitated his departure, after a brief internment in France, from Europe. He and his wife Marta obtained asylum in the United States in 1941 and remained there in exile until they died.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third and last book in Feuchtwanger’s Wartesaal (Waiting Room) Trilogy. Like ‘Erfolg’, the first of the books in the trilogy, ‘Exil’ is a ‘Schlüsselroman’, i.e. a novel in which real historical figures are hidden behind fictitious names. The narrative takes place in 1935 in Paris, and the protagonists are emigrants from the Third Reich and their enemies, the ‘Urbösen’ (‘the original evil ones’), i.e. the Nazis in Germany, as well as their representatives and sympathisers in France.

One of the editors of the German emigrant newspaper, the ‘Pariser Nachrichten’ (based on the actual emigrant paper at the time in Paris, the ‘Pariser Tageblatt’), Friedrich Benjamin (based on the actual Jewish German journalist Berthold Jacob) is abducted by Gestapo agents upon a visit to Basel (at the Swiss-German border). Sepp Trautwein, composer and former music professor in Munich, temporarily puts down his music to concentrate on trying to put pressure on the Third Reich by replacing Benjamin as an editor on the Pariser Nachrichten, who become the main voice in the (seemingly hopeless) push by the emigrant community to have Benjamin freed. Eventually, after 7 months in a concentration camp, Benjamin is indeed freed and extradited by the Nazis but it remains unclear if the efforts of the emigrants had anything to with this. Sepp returns to his composing and writes the ‘Wartesaal’ Symphony, which can be understood as a metaphor for a time of exile.

Using this scenario, Feuchtwanger describes in great detail, and with a fabulous cast of characters, the situation of German emigrants in France before WW2, their existential fears, their lack of political unity, as well as their powerless and somewhat ludicrous struggle against the all-powerful Nazi state apparatus. All of the protagonists and their actions are written in Feuchtwanger’s usual highly convincing and entertaining style. Perhaps this is not so surprising, considering Feuchtwanger was an emigrant in France for a time himself, after he had lost his German citizenship at Hitler’s personal behest, and before finding his final exile in the USA.

[bxa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muß man zu diesem absoluten Klassiker wirklich noch eine Rezension schreiben?

Vielleicht nur so viel:
Ein Klassiker spricht über Dekaden, manchmal über Jahrhunderte zur lesenden Gesellschaft, mit relevanter Stimme.

Feuchtwangers "Wartesaal"-Trilogie, inklusive des Abschlußbandes "Exil" hat zumindest zu mir auch über drei Lebensalter hinweg gesprochen: So beeindruckt, wie ich als Jugendliche war, so engagiert habe ich die Bücher als nicht mehr ganz so junge Erwachsene gelesen und so nachdenkenswert-aktuell erscheint mir vieles, da ich nun nochmal mit bald 60 Jahren zu diesem Buch gegriffen habe.

Gut, DASS ich es nochmal aus dem Regal geholt habe! Nicht viele Bücher kann man mit Gewinn mehrmals, vielmals im Leben lesen. Dieses lohnt sich - immer wieder.

[Charles Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great forgotten novels of twentieth century German literature, every bit on par with his other novels. A true peer in of Thomas Mann, but more accessible. Covers the ups and downs of the lives of handful of refugees from Hitler's German in Paris during the late 1930s and early 1940s, pitched around the production of a refugee newspaper. It's fast paced, supple-plotted, and rich in aesthetically pleasing detail and fascinating character studies. Very satisfying read.

[Steven Lawrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extensive and leisurely narrative on 862 pages (in what appears to be font size 9!) in which Feuchtwanger provides a psychological insight into the minds of refugees from National Socialism who have gone into exile in Paris. The novel also examines the actions and motivations of some pro-NS characters. Given the length of the narrative, Feuchtwanger has ample scope to create rounded and convincing characters.

Topics: the privations of exile and the struggle to survive in the foreign environment; art or politics as sources of resistance to the National Socialist regime. Catalyst for the action is the kidnapping by the Nazis of a German Jewish journalist who is abducted across the Swiss-German border. Part of the novel concerns the campaign for the release of the kidnapped journalist. Some aspects of this work were inspired by real events.

This novel does not give as comprehensive and panoramic a picture of the phenomenon of exile from National Socialism as is provided in Klaus Mann's novel Der Vulkan, but Feuchtwanger's work nevertheless conveys to the reader an impression of the experience of exile.

862 very readable pages.

(No English translation of this novel appears to exist, and I am not sure about other foreign language versions either. You might, therefore, have to learn German before you read Exil.)

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lion Feuchtwanger heard about the Nazi assumption of power while he was in the USA for a lecture tour. He decided not to return to Germany. At this time, his historical novels Die häßliche Herzogin [The Ugly Duchess] and Jud Süß [Jew Suess], which deal with anti-Semitism in Europe in various historical eras, already had an audience of millions in English-speaking countries. Feuchtwanger initially settled in Sanary-sur-Mer in southern France where he set up his “Weimar on the Riviera” in Villa Valmer. A network of exiled persons formed around him – including the likes of Bertolt Brecht, Arnold Zweig and Thomas Mann.To draw immediate attention to the political changes in Germany while it was possible for Feuchtwanger by writing novels, he and Brecht together founded the exile newspaper Das Wort [The Word] in 1936.After Hitler took France, Feuchtwanger was detained in the Les Milles internment camp in spring 1940. He managed to get smuggled out of the camp dressed as a woman, escaped by foot over the Pyrenees, and entered the USA in 1941.To keep his work translatable, Feuchtwanger wrote in simple language while in exile. He chose the historical novel as a medium for anti-fascist resistance. He hoped to find timeless truth by recording historical proceedings and he published his novels frequently, in order to react to the political situations immediately.

[Susu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Der Schlüsselroman über die deutsche Emigration in der NS-Zeit, gestrickt um die Geschichte des Journalisten Benjamin, der. Heim ins Reich verschleppt wird. Trautwein, eigentlich Komponist, verstrickt sich in seinen Fall und stürzt sich in seine Arbeit als Journalist und versucht sich in der Politik. Rund herum zeigt Feuchtwanger die Mitläufer, die erbitterten Gegner, den Zwang und erlaubt einen unverstellten Blick auf die "Urbösen". Seine Figuren entwickeln sich langsam in diesem Gemälde vom Exil. Lesenswerter Klassiker in wunderschöner Sprache.

[Mashehu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sehr eindrucksvolle und vielperspektivische Schilderungen des Emigrantentums in Paris 1935, leider etwas zu langatmig. Soundtrack: Schwanensee

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nach einem etwas schwierigen Einstieg war dieser Roman einfach nur fesselnd, auf eine eigentümliche Weise.
Noch nie habe ich solche Einblicke in die Gedanken, Schicksale und Umfelde von Emigranten, aber eben auch von Nazifunktionären bekommen. Und das ohne die "Eindeutigkeit" eines typischen Bösewichts.
Die inneren Kämpfe von Nazifunktionären - und wie sie am Ende doch irgendwie dem Schlechten erliegen. Wie Juden sie als Urböses bezeichnen und dann in direktem Gespräch sie doch "nur als Menschen mit Gesicht" wahrnehmen.. es war eine (natürlich thematisch überschattete und eher meinerseits wissbegierige, aber traurige) Freude, dieses Buch zu lesen.
Ich bin gespannt auf die anderen beiden aus der Reihe, die ich noch nicht gelesen habe. Gerade um eben diese Zeit in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jh in Deutschland und Europa zu verstehen. Wie konnten Menschen so agieren?
Weg bzw. weiter vorwärts von "üblichen Fakten" zu kommen, die (fast) jeder in Deutschland in der Schule lernt, und versuchen dahinterzukommen, was in den verschiedenen Menschengruppen vor sich ging.. es war wirklich eine aufgerührte und folgenreiche Zeit.
Vielleicht kann solche Lektüre dem Einzelnen doch nochmal mehr helfen, das Entstehen und zeitweise Eskalieren der Grausamkeiten des Dritten Reichs einzuordnen - insbesondere im Kontext der Jahre davor und der Gefühlswelten und Bedürfnisse der Menschen der damaligen Zeit.
"Verstehen" möchte ich hier nicht sagen, denn verstehen kann ich und sicherlich die meisten Menschen ebenso nicht, wie etwas so Mörderisches, Hinterhältiges, Rücksichtsloses, und abgrundtief Verabscheuungswürdiges wie die Ideologien und Mordpraktiken der Nazis wirklich entstehen und unterstützt werden konnte. Ich werde es nie begreifen.
Ich merke, ich bin immer noch am Verarbeiten und bin froh, dass jemand wie Feuchtwanger diese Zeit so hervorragend abzubilden vermochte.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schwache 3 Sterne. Im Gegensatz zu früheren Romanen Feuchtwangers, die ich im Lauf der letzten Jahre mit Freude und Interesse gelesen habe, war mir "Exil" ein gutes Stück zu nahe am Trivialroman gebaut. Mein Interesse an der Materie, an Zeit, Ort, Thematik ist ja sehr groß, und Feuchtwanger kann zweifellos erzählen, hat seinen Stoff und seine Figuren im Griff, und trotzdem hatte ich über weite Strecken das Gefühl, ich lese eine große Exilanten-Soap.

[Vëstibyl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hörbuch, gekürzte Fassung.

[Peter Jakobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paris 1935, German refugees (jews, artist, socialist) and Nazis. Perfect scenary for a book written by an exilant himself.