Bembelkandidat reminds us that Kurt Tucholsky – the muse and genius of Dialog International – died 70 years ago today from an overdose of sleeping tablets, a thousand miles from his beloved Berlin. Tucholsky spent most of his career as a writer defending the Republic he loved, and warning about the forces of reaction that would bury it. Was there ever a writer since Heinrich Heine who was more successful in fusing satire and irony with moral and political outrage? Like Heine, Tucholsky was driven from his homeland, and watched in horror as his most dire warnings were realized in Germany. By 1935, the year of his suicide, Tucholsky knew that his Germany was doomed, but he had the satisfaction of knowing that his books were burned by the forces he despised. After the war, Erich Kästner wrote about the "Berliner who tried to prevent a catastophe with a typewriter."
"Wir haben das Recht, Deutschland zu hassen – weil wir es lieben. Man hat uns zu berücksichtigen, wenn man von Deutschland spricht, uns: Kommunisten, junge Sozialisten, Pazifisten, Freiheitsliebende aller Grade; man hat uns mitzudenken, wenn “Deutschland” gedacht wird …wie einfach, so zu tun, als bestehe Deutschland nur aus nationalen Verbänden."
Deutschland ist ein gespaltenes Land. Ein Teil von ihm sind wir.
(Kurt Tucholsky – Schnipsel)
(my trans. We have the right to hate Germany– because we love it. You can’t speak about Germanywithout considering us: communists, young socialists, pacifists, all those who love freedom; when you think of “Germany” you have to also think of us – and not just think that Germany consists of nationalistic organizations
Germany is a divided country. We are part of it.)
