Fähnders: Ruth Landshoff-Yorck um 1933 – Feuilleton, Roman, Lyrik, Erzählung

Abstract: Today, Ruth Landshoff-Yorck is considered an important feuilletonist of the Weimar Republic. She had been publishing frequently in the Weimar press since 1927. However, in mid-1933, her publications in the German press ceased abruptly. Even her novel, Leben einer Tänzerin, which had already been proofread and typeset, was no longer being produced, though she was not yet featured on any of the National Socialists’ blacklists. Up to that point, her texts had never been overtly political. Apparently, it was her Jewish heritage, along with her emancipatory views (particularly those related to gender) in the context of the Berlin bohemian scene and its associated periodicals, that led to her no longer being featured. After moving primarily to Paris in 1933, she turned to poetry for a time and released three small, elegant volumes of her poems through private printing in 1934 – 1935. In 1935, she published her first non-German work, a French translation of her Emigranten-Novelle, which paved the way for her later political writings in English during her exile in the United States beginning in 1937.