ABSTRACT
Zurich, the Noah's Ark of World War I. International centre for emigrés: those who objected to war outright, and those who had had some experience of the front and were fleeing its butchery. At various periods during those years, Zurich played host to James Joyce, Stephan Zweig, Romain Rolland, Lenin and Krupskaya, to name only the most illustrious. Along with the others came a young German poet, Hugo Ball, who had been acquainted with Berlin's early Expressionist circles, Munich's theatre groups and Kandinsky's Blaue Reiterschool. In 1914 Ball had volunteered for war service, but quickly recognized the unheroic nature of battle, and was discharged after half a year for health reasons. He fled to Zurich with his mistress, the singer and poet, Emmy Hennings, and there, in 1916, he convinced Herr Ephraim, the owner of a somewhat seedy bar, the Meierei, to permit him to run a cabaret on his premises. Herr Ephraim's motivation was Ball's promise that the sales of beer, sausage and rolls would rise dramatically with the help of a literary cabaret.
