Kurt Tucholsky Museum Tour

Shortly prior to his death Kurt Tucholsky changed his will and wrote farewell letters. He wrote a long letter, a political statement, on December 15, 1935 to Arnold Zweig. The Austrian poet Erich Fried remembers later:

“I remember how shocked I was, when I read his bitter letter to Arnold Zweig, a sort of farewell letter, written a week before his death.”

A short excerpt from the letter reveals the hopelessness with which the “ex-poet” Tucholsky viewed the situation in Europe.

“[…] Who doesn’t have freedom in his blood, who doesn’t feel what this is: Freedom – will never reach it. […] We have suffered a defeat. We have been given a trashing, like no other party in a long time. What is to be done now? Now it is time for grim contemplation. Now, despite the laughable danger of people exploiting this, we have to undergo a self-criticism, compared to which acid sulphur appears to be soap water. Now we need to say: “Me to! Me to! We have done that wrong, and that and that – and we failed at this. And not: the others have….but: we all have!”

Tucholsky died on December 21 at the age of 45 after taking an overdose.