Skip to main content

German Exiles in Southern California: A Castle by the Sea, Goethe in Hollywood, and L.A. as Hell

composers_smpl.jpg
A group of German exiles stroll through Pacific Palisades in 1937. From left to right: composer Otto Klemperer, anti-Nazi activist Prince Hubertus von Löwenstein, composer Arnold Schoenberg, and composer Ernst Toch. | Courtesy of the Pacific Palisades Historical Society Collection, Santa Monica Public Library.
Support Provided By

In the 1930s and 1940s, as the horrors of Nazi Germany engulfed the European continent, Los Angeles became a sanctuary for some of Europe's most celebrated artists and intellectuals. Playwright Bertolt Brecht, author Thomas Mann, and composer Arnold Schoenberg all made Southern California their home in the years surrounding World War II and—drawn by the region's favorable climate and the economic opportunities afforded by the Hollywood film industry—scores of other German-speaking exiles joined them.

Next week, scholars from around the world will convene at the University of Southern California for the fifth biennial conference of the International Feuchtwanger Society. From Wednesday, September 14 through Friday, September 16, historians, librarians, and other experts will discuss the experiences of the artists, intellectuals, and other German-speaking exiles who fled persecution in Nazi-controlled Europe for the safety of Southern California.

Although many chose to return to Europe after the Second World War's conclusion—a decision that is the theme of the upcoming conference—others remained, closing out their illustrious careers near the Mediterranean shores of California. Today, our region's archives preserve the record of these exiles and émigrés.

One of the most prominent exiles to make Southern California home was the German-Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger, who gave his name to the International Feuchtwanger Society.

Feuchtwanger was an internationally renowned historical novelist whose outspoken criticism of Hitler and National Socialism made him an enemy of the state when the Nazis assumed power in Germany in 1933. Driven into exile in France, Feuchtwanger was imprisoned by French authorities at the outbreak of World War II—an episode that Feuchtwanger recorded in his memoir, The Devil in France, recently revised and republished by the USC Libraries.

In 1940, Feuchtwanger escaped from an internment camp in Vichy France with the help of his wife and several sympathetic Americans, who then smuggled the couple out of Europe. Deciding upon Southern California as a new home, the Feuchtwangers heard of a sprawling 6,000 square-foot house in Pacific Palisades that had fallen into disrepair. Built in 1928 as the Los Angeles Times Demonstration Home, the house was meant to demonstrate not only the latest innovations in household design, but also the attraction of living far from the city's urban core.

Ironically, it was that very isolation that had undercut the house's value - it and others in the neighborhood were seen as too distant from basic amenities such as schools and medical care. The Feuchtwangers bought the estate for only $9,000, renovated the property and promptly filled the house with books.

Villa Aurora, as they called the house, soon became a hub of cultural fellowship among the émigré community. The Feuchtwangers were generous hosts and frequently welcomed their fellow exiles, along with American artists and intellectuals, for readings from upcoming works, discussions about art and culture, and to share the latest news from Germany. Feuchtwanger lived in Los Angeles until his death in 1958.

Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger. Courtesy of the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, USC Libraries.
Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger. Courtesy of the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, USC Libraries.
The Los Angeles Times Demonstration Home in 1928. Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger later purchased the house and renamed it Villa Aurora. Courtesy of the Pacific Palisades Historical Society Collection, Santa Monica Public Library.
The Los Angeles Times Demonstration Home in 1928. Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger later purchased the house and renamed it Villa Aurora. Courtesy of the Pacific Palisades Historical Society Collection, Santa Monica Public Library.

Thomas Mann—the Nobel Prize-winning author of Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain—was among those who attended the salons at Villa Aurora, calling the house a "true castle by the sea."

Mann, perhaps the most famous of the German émigrés in Los Angeles, would later build his own castle perched atop the hills of Pacific Palisades.

Strongly opposed to Nazi policies, Mann left Germany in 1933. After several years of exile in Switzerland and a short teaching stint at Princeton, he and his wife Katia arrived in Los Angeles in 1940.

Many within the exilic community held conflicted feelings about Los Angeles; some detested the city's perceived cultural and urban shortcomings and were only too happy to return to Europe after the war. Mann, however, took U.S. citizenship and planned to make Los Angeles his permanent home.

In his 1996 book German-speaking Artists in Hollywood, Cornelius Schnauber quoted Mann, who often enjoyed strolling down Santa Monica's Palisades Park, on his reasons for settling in Los Angeles:

"The climate has great advantages," he wrote a friend, "as does the countryside, living expenses are relatively cheap, and, in particular, the opportunities for our young musician-children are promising." Later, Mann wrote to his son: "We were just at Princeton and it is very pretty. But I am a bit afraid of the scholarly atmosphere, and I basically prefer the movie rabble in Hollywood."

A 1942 New Yorker profile proclaimed Mann to be "Goethe in Hollywood" and, according to Mann's fellow exile Bertolt Brecht, the author thought of himself as a "latter-day Goethe in search of the land where the lemons grow" (quoted in City of Quartz by Mike Davis).

Mann's years in Southern California were productive. He composed some of his most significant works while in Los Angeles, including Doctor Faustus and The Holy Sinner. Eventually, the draw of Europe's old world traditions was too strong. In 1952, Mann returned to Switzerland, where he died in 1955.

Feuchtwanger and Mann were only two of the many intellectual and artistic titans to reside under the Southern California sunshine.

	Arnold Schoenberg conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in a rehearsal for a 1935 concert. Courtesy of the Herald-Examiner Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.
Arnold Schoenberg conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in a rehearsal for a 1935 concert. Courtesy of the Herald-Examiner Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

The influential Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg left Vienna for Los Angeles in 1934. Schoenberg—the founder of the Second Viennese School—taught music at both UCLA and USC and his weekly tennis matches against George Gershwin became the stuff of local legends. He lived in Brentwood until his death in 1951.

In 1941, the famed dramatist Bertolt Brecht arrived in Southern California, settling into a house on 26th Street in Santa Monica. Like many exiles, Brecht found financial support from the Hollywood studios, although his actual contributions were limited: his one script was for Fritz Lang's 1943 film, Hangmen Also Die.

Brecht complained often of life in Los Angeles. In 1942, he wrote that "here one feels like Francis of Assisi in the aquarium, Lenin at the Prater (or Oktoberfest), a chrysanthemum in a mine pit, or a sausage in a hot-house." As Mike Davis noted in City of Quartz, "none of the anti-fascist exiles seemed more spiritually desolated by Los Angeles than the Berlin playwright and Marxist aesthetician." In his poem "Contemplating Hell," Brecht wrote:

On thinking about Hell, I gather My brother Shelley found it was a place Much like the city of London. I Who live in Los Angeles and not in London Find, on thinking about Hell, that it must be Still more like Los Angeles.

Brecht lived in Santa Monica until the advent of the McCarthy era made life—and work—uncomfortable for him. Singled out for his leftist politics, Brecht was blacklisted by Hollywood executives and on October 30, 1947 controversially testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee. The following day, he returned to Europe, where he would live out his remaining years in East Germany.

Next week's conference, titled To Stay or Not to Stay? (Bleiben oder Zurück-kehren) will explore through seventeen panel discussions the reasons some exiles, like Feuchtwanger and Schoenberg, remained in Los Angeles, while others, like Mann and Brecht, emigrated back to Europe.

Southern California's archives have become a destination for scholars around the world researching the experience of German exiles in L.A. The extensive archives of USC's Feuchtwanger Memorial Library document the lives of Lion Feuchtwanger, novelist Heinrich Mann, and composer Hanns Eisler, among others. The UC Irvine Libraries' Special Collections preserve more than 1,000 editions of Thomas Mann's published works, in addition to thousands of manuscripts, letters, and other documents related to Mann and his family.

Villa Aurora also continues as a place for intellectual fellowship. Maintained by the German government, the Feuchtwangers' former house is today a monument to Southern California's exile community and a residence for artists who face persecution overseas.

la-as-subject-name-treatment2

Many of the archives who contributed the above images are members of L.A. as Subject, an association of more than 230 libraries, museums, official archives, personal collections, and other institutions. Hosted by the USC Libraries, L.A. as Subject is dedicated to preserving and telling the sometimes-hidden stories and histories of the Los Angeles region. Our posts here will provide a view into the archives of individuals and cultural institutions whose collections inform the great narrative—in all its complex facets—of Southern California.

Support Provided By
Read More
A sepia-tone historic photo of a man holding a cane standing in front of a food stand, surrounded by various crates, boxes, and advertising signs promoting cigarettes, candies, barbeque and more.

Pasadena Claims To Be The Home Of The Cheeseburger — But There's Beef

The cheeseburger was supposedly invented by Lionel Sternberger at The Rite Spot in Pasadena, when he added a slice of cheese to a regular beef burger and called it the "Aristocratic Hamburger." But the real history behind this fast food staple is a bit more complicated.
A hand-colored postcard of a large, white, colonial-style building with a green tiled roof stands behind a lush landscape of flower beds, a green lawn and many varieties of trees, with mountains looming just behind. An American flag waves at the top of a flagpole above the roof.

From Hiking to Hospitals: L.A. at the Center of the Pursuit of Health

The opportunity to get and stay healthy was a major draw for people to both visit and move to Los Angeles — whether it was during the tuberculosis epidemic (a.k.a. the "forgotten plague") during the 19th century or the health and wellness boom of the early 20th century. Both of these topics are explored in Season 6 of the PBS SoCal Original Series Lost LA.
A black and white photo of an adult dressed as the easter bunny with a giant costumed head, holding a little girl on their left who gives it a kiss on the cheek and, with his right arm, holding a little boy who brings his hands to his eyes as though wiping away tears.

Behold the Bunnies and Bonnets of L.A.'s Past Easter Celebrations

The onset of the spring season heralds the arrival of fragrant flowers in bloom — and all the critters that enjoy them, including the Easter bunny and families who anticipate his arrival with egg hunts, parades and questionable fashion choices.