The first comprehensive catalog of an important German-Jewish expressionist painter. On the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the artist's birth, this catalogue presents for the first time an overview of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky's paintings in an elegant volume of full color reproductions accompanied by illuminating commentary. Born in Vienna, she studied with Max Beckmann, who became a significant influence on the young artist. Later, in exile in London, Motesiczky grew close to Oskar Kokoschka and became acquainted with some of the leading intellectuals of the twentieth century, including Elias Canetti, with whom she shared a long and intimate relationship. The paintings and drawings in this book explore the artist's transition from the edgy realism of her early years to the softer and more poetic paintings of her later work. Her portraits, for which she is most famous, include compelling self-examinations as well as a moving series devoted to her mother. Essays on Motesiczky's youth in Vienna, her friendship with Beckmann, and her time in London provide crucial background to a unique and fascinating artist whose wider recognition is long overdue.

The Memory Factory introduces an English-speaking public to the significant women artists of Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century, each chosen for her aesthetic innovations and participation in public exhibitions. These women played important public roles as exhibiting artists, both individually and in collectives, but this history has been silenced over time. Their stories show that the city of Vienna was contradictory and cosmopolitan: despite men-only policies in its main art institutions, it offered a myriad of unexpected ways for women artists to forge successful public careers. Women artists came from the provinces, Russia, and Germany to participate in its vibrant art scene. However, and especially because so many of the artists were Jewish, their contributions were actively obscured beginning in the late 1930s. Many had to flee Austria, losing their studios and lifework in the process. Some were killed in concentration camps. Along with the stories of individual women artists, the author reconstructs the history of separate women artists' associations and their exhibitions. Chapters covering the careers of Tina Blau, Elena Luksch-Makowsky, Bronica Koller, Helene Funke, and Teresa Ries (among others) point to a more integrated and cosmopolitan art world than previously thought; one where women became part of the avant-garde, accepted and even highlighted in major exhibitions at the Secession and with the Klimt group.

Eighteen new articles on the works of Goethe and other authors of the Goethezeit, along with the customary book review section. The Goethe Yearbook is a publication of the Goethe Society of North America. It publishes original contributions to the understanding of Goethe and other authors of the Goethezeit. Its book review section evaluates awide selection of publications on the period, and is important for all scholars of 18th-century literature. The eighteen articles in this volume treat a wide range of topics. The volume opens with the last work of the late StuartAtkins, on Renaissance and Baroque elements in Faust, and proceeds to a critical appreciation of the Goethe scholarship of the late Géza von Molnár, before offering Molnár's last essay, also on Faust. A number of articles explore questions of the "Ich," the Ego, and subjectivity in the writings of Goethe and of others of his age such as Rousseau, Moritz, Fichte, and Novalis. Three articles deal with Faust, one with Götz von Berlichingen's Weislingen, one with the genealogy of the poem 'Auf dem See, ' and one with Egmont. An article focuses on the women figures in Wilhelm Meister, and there is a short story titled 'Mignon' by Irmgard ElsnerHunt. Other articles explore Grillparzer's Sappho, Wilhelm Müller's Lieder der Griechen, and Karls Enkel's Dahin! Dahin! Ein Göte-Abend. There is also a Laudatio to Daniel Barenboim in addition to the customary book review section. Contributors: Stewart Atkins, Katharina Mommsen, Peter Fenves, Géza von Molnár, Fritz Breithaupt, Anthony Krupp, Elliott Schreiber, Edgar Landgraf, Horst Lange, Volker Kaiser, Rainer Nägele, Martha B. Helfer, Marion Schmaus, Brigitte Prutti, Charles A. Grair, Lorna Fitzsimmons, Irmgard Elsner Hunt. Book review editor is Martha B. Helfer. Simon J. Richter is associate professor of German at the Universityof Pennsylvania.

Graphic artist, illustrator, painter, and cartoonist Rahel Szalit (1888–1942) was among the best-known Jewish women artists in Weimar Berlin. But after she was arrested by the French police and then murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz, she was all but lost to history, and most of her paintings have been destroyed or gone missing. Drawing on a range of primary and secondary sources, this biography recovers Szalit’s life and presents a stunning collection of her art. Szalit was a sought-after artist. Highly regarded by art historians and critics of her day, she made a name for herself with soulful, sometimes humorous illustrations of Jewish and world literature by Sholem Aleichem, Heinrich Heine, Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, and others. She published her work in the mainstream German and Jewish press, and she ran in artists’ and queer circles in Weimar Berlin and in 1930s Paris. Szalit’s fascinating life demonstrates how women artists gained access to Jewish and avant-garde movements by experimenting with different media and genres. This engaging and deeply moving biography explores the life, work, and cultural contexts of an exceptional Jewish woman artist. Complementing studies such as Michael Brenner’s The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany, this book brings Rahel Szalit into the larger conversation about Jewish artists, Expressionism, and modern art.

A re-examination of the George Circle in the cultural and political contexts of Wilhelmine, Weimar, and Nazi Germany. Stefan George (1868-1933) was one of the most important figures in modern German culture. His poetry, in its originality and impact, has been ranked with that of Goethe and Hölderlin. Yet George's reach extended beyond the sphereof literature. In the early 1900s, he gathered around himself a circle of disciples who subscribed to his vision of comprehensive cultural-spiritual renewal and sought to turn it into reality. The ideas of the George Circle profoundly affected Germany's educated middle class, especially in the aftermath of the First World War, when their critique of bourgeois liberalism, materialism, and scholarship (Wissenschaft) as well as their call for new formsof leadership (Herrschaft) and a new Reich found wider resonance. The essays collected in the present volume critically re-examine these ideas, their contexts, and their influence. They provide new perspectives on the intersection of culture and politics in the works of the George Circle, not least its ambivalent relationship to National Socialism. Contributors: Adam Bisno, Richard Faber, Rüdiger Görner, Peter Hoffmann, Thomas Karlauf, Melissa S. Lane, Robert E. Lerner, David Midgley, Robert E. Norton, Ray Ockenden, Ute Oelmann, Martin A. Ruehl, Bertram Schefold. Melissa S. Lane is Professor of Politics at Princeton University. Martin A. Ruehl is Lecturerin German Thought and Fellow of Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge.