Description
Gundolf S. Freyermuth’s Reise in die Verlorengegangenheit (translated: Journey into Lost Time) is a remarkable oral and photographic history of German emigrants who fled Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1940. Structured in three chapters—Berlin’s cultural collapse, the escape from Germany, and exile in France and America—this work offers rare firsthand accounts and intimate recollections from émigrés like Paul Henreid, Grete Mosheim, and others who were exiled for their politics, their art, or simply their identity. This is a deep dive into a vanished intellectual diaspora, captured just in time as many of these voices were aging or near death.
The book’s striking visual impact comes courtesy of Michael Montfort, the legendary German-born photojournalist best known for his long collaboration with Charles Bukowski. Here, Montfort trades dive bars for drawing rooms, photographing surviving members of the German exile community in their adopted homes—many in Southern California. With design elements echoing German New Wave aesthetics, this 1990 volume, published by Rasch und Röhring Verlag, is as much a documentary artifact as it is a deeply human historical project. A nice copy of a scarce photographic and historical study and rarely seen outside of the German-speaking book market.
A compelling and visually rich chronicle of Germany’s lost intellectuals—perfect for collectors of exile literature, 20th-century history, or Michael Montfort’s photographic work.
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