ABSTRACT
Tucholsky studied law in Berlin, Geneva and Jena; in 1912 he made his literary début with Rheinsberg. Ein Bilderbuch für Verliebte, a light-hearted and tender love-story. He turned his attention increasingly to critical essays and satirical poems, some verging on the grotesque, which he contributed to Vorwärts, also to the Schaubühne (renamed Weltbühne after 1918). He became one of the most active polemical writers in the latter journal, attacking above all militarism, appeasement and anti-democratic attitudes. The Fromme Gesänge (1919) and Träumereien an preuβischen Kaminen (1920) attack the infamous legend of a ‘stab in the back’ and the unsuccessful attempts made at liberalism. Tucholsky’s literary criticism was perceptive and original; he was one of the first to review and draw attention to Kafka, Benn and Brecht. He became sick of Germany in 1924 and moved to Paris, where he lived for five years before moving to Sweden. Deutschland Deutschland über alles (1929) continues the crusade against Germany’s failure to achieve true democracy. The novel Schloβ Gripsholm (1931) was based on a summer holiday spent with Lisa Matthias (‘Lydia’) in Sweden; it was intended as a ‘Fingerübung’ for a more detailed book on women. The tone is light and ironic, but the ‘Kinderheim’ episode hints at the Nazi tyranny to come. In 1932 he collaborated with Walter Hasenclever, using the pseudonym Peter Panter, on a drama, Christoph Kolumbus oder die Entdeckung Amerikas. Growing disillusionment led to a withdrawal from the world of politics; Tucholsky turned to a reading of Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard. His health deteriorated, and he committed suicide at Hindås, near Gothenburg.
