Category: germany

• Reading Heidegger

  Jun 8

  You won’t have read Heidegger until you’ve (also) read Being and Time. There are two routes toward reading B/T: 1) just read the damn thing, or 2) ease into reading… more ›

• Alive and Kicking

  Sep 21

  Berlin-based Rixdorf Editions continues to establish itself as the premier publisher of Wilhelminia in English translation. Although a streak of social conservatism marks the reign of German Emperor Wilhelm II,… more ›

• Orientalist Arabesque

  Aug 21

  Else Lasker-Schüler’s novela The Nights of Tino of Baghdad came to me a couple of weeks ago. It’s free to anyone who subscribes to the Rixdorf Editions newsletter, and it’s… more ›

• In Search of Babushka

  May 18

  Babushka’s Journey: The Dark Road to Stalin’s Wartime Camps is an eloquent travel memoir that also manages to do the heavy lifting required by great historical writing. Though German-born and… more ›

• Monday Mix 011617: Lingua franca

  Jan 17

  I’ve studied language for most of life, even before I declared at the age of 10 that I wanted to be a writer. But decades later I’m unable to list… more ›

• Germany, Year Zero

  Aug 25

  In Rossellini’s Germany, Year Zero Berlin’s bombed-out buildings manifest the destruction the war had already wreaked inside the characters’ lives. The city, once a specific site of history, becomes in Rossellini’s harsh… more ›

• Itinerary

  May 23

  Here is the itinerary for my upcoming and far-too-short trip to Europe. Please let me know if our paths will cross at some point. Wed 25 May Arrive FRA (Frankfurt… more ›

• A Memory (Once More)

  Jul 16

  Erinnerung Und du wartest, erwartest das Eine, das dein Leben unendlich vermehrt; das Mächtige, Ungemeine, das Erwachen der Steine, Tiefen, dir zugekehrt. Es dämmern im Bücherständer die Bände in Gold… more ›

• At Once: A Second Word in Passing

  Jul 2

  In eins Dreizehnter Feber.  Im Herzmund erwachtes Schibboleth.  Mit dir, Peuple de Paris.  No pasarán. 5     Schäfchen zur Linken:  er, Abadias, der Greis aus Huesca, kam mit den Hunden über… more ›

• Password … Said in Passing

  Jun 25

  Schibboleth Mitsamt meinen Steinen, den großgeweinten hinter den Gittern, schleiften sie mich 5     in die Mitte des Marktes, dorthin, wo die Fahne sich aufrollt, der ich keinerlei Eid schwor. Flöte,… more ›