AUDEN and ISHERWOOD the BERLIN YEARS Also by Norman Page

AUDEN AND ISHERWOOD THE BERLIN YEARS Also by Norman Page

A. E. HOUSMAN: A Critical Biography TENNYSON: An Illustrated Life SPEECH IN THE ENGLISH NOVEL THE LANGUAGE OF JANE AUSTEN E. M. FORSTER MURIEL SPARK A DICKENS COMPANION A KIPLING COMPANION A CONRAD COMPANION A BYRON CHRONOLOGY A DICKENS CHRONOLOGY A DR JOHNSON CHRONOLOGY AN OSCAR WILDE CHRONOLOGY AN EVELYN WAUGH CHRONOLOGY WILKIE COLLINS: The Critical Heritage NABOKOV: The Critical Heritage D. H. LAWRENCE: Interviews and Recollections BYRON: Interviews and Recollections TENNYSON: Interviews and Recollections DR JOHNSON: Interviews and Recollections HENRY JAMES: Interviews and Recollections THOMAS HARDY Auden and Isherwood The Berlin Years

Norman Page

palgrave macmillam © Norman Page 1998 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1998 978-0-333-72022-6

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with * the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan<~> is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. Outside North America ISBN 978-1-349-26809-2 ISBN 978-0-230-59898-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-59898-0 Inside North America ISBN 978-0-312-21173-8

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. For Kamal Contents

List of Plates ix

Acknowledgements x

Prologue: Looking for Berlin 1

1 Two Young Englishmen 6

2 Berlin: Places 61

3 Berlin: Faces 100

4 The Other Camera - Aspects of Weimar Cinema 146

5 Writing about Berlin 173

Epilogue: Goodbye to Berlin 210

Bibliography 213

Index 217

vii List of Plates

1 Auden, Isherwood and Spender photographed by Howard Coster in the early 1930s (National Portrait Gallery). 2 Auden and John Layard in Germany, 1929, probably at Rote• hutte (photograph by Richard Layard; from W. H. Auden by Humphrey Carpenter; George Allen & Unwin, London). 3 Auden, Spender and Isherwood on Rugen Island in 1931; a print given to Gabriel Carritt and signed by all three (Lock• wood Memorial Library, University of Buffalo, NY). 4 Isherwood and Otto on Rugen Island c. 1931 (from Eye of the Camera by Jonathan Fryer (Allison & Busby); photograph by Spender, courtesy of the estate of Christopher Isherwood). 5 The young Francis Turville-Petre with his sisters (by kind permission of Mrs Alethea Constable-Maxwell). 6 Tauentzienstrasse, Berlin, 1930 (Sammlung Eikernier, Berlin). 7 Dr Magnus Hirschfeld at his desk in the Institute c. 1926 (Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft eV, Berlin). 8 Part of the interior of the Hirschfeld Institute, Berlin (Mag• nus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft eV, Berlin). 9 Wystan Hugh Auden, Cecil Day Lewis and Stephen Spender in Venice during the PEN Club Conference in 1949 (believed to be the only photograph of all three together; Hulton Deutsch Collection Ltd). 10 Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel (BPI Stills, Posters and Designs). 11 Conrad Veidt in The Student of Prague (BPI Stills, Posters and Designs).

ix Acknowledgements

For advice and assistance of many kinds I am grateful to the following: Don Bachardy, Neville Braybrooke, Sally Brown (British Library), Katherine Bucknell, Mrs Mireille Burton, Jane Callander (BBC), Humphrey Carpenter, Mrs Alethea Constable-Maxwell (nee Turville-Petre), A. T. Cornwell (Hon. Obituarist, Oratory Society), Ralf Dose (Magnus Hirschfeld Gesellschaft, Berlin), Loren Driscoll, Wayne Furman (New York Public Library), Robert Golding (Free University, Berlin), Rainer Herrn (Magnus Hirschfeld Gesellschaft, Berlin), David Luke (Christ Church, Oxford), J. R. Maddicott (Librarian and Archivist, Exeter College, Oxford), Francis O. Matt• son (Curator, Berg Collection), Luke McKernan (British Film Insti• tute), Professor Edward Mendelson (Literary Executor, the Estate of W. H. Auden), Mr and Mrs Konrad Muthesius, Peter Parker, Renata Stepanek (nee Muthesius), A. J. Tinkel (Archivist, Oratory School), Professor ThorIac Turville-Petre, Edward Upward, Rick Wandel (National Museum and Archive of Lesbian and Gay His• tory, New York). The Leverhulme Trust generously granted me an Emeritus Fel• lowship for research on the subject of this book. Quotations from W. H. Auden's 'Berlin Journal' are copyright by the Estate of W. H. Auden and reproduced here by kind permis• sion of Professor Edward Mendelson and the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.