Käsebier Takes Berlin

Fiction & Literature, Psychological, Humorous
Cover of the book Käsebier Takes Berlin by Gabriele Tergit, New York Review Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Gabriele Tergit ISBN: 9781681372730
Publisher: New York Review Books Publication: July 30, 2019
Imprint: NYRB Classics Language: English
Author: Gabriele Tergit
ISBN: 9781681372730
Publisher: New York Review Books
Publication: July 30, 2019
Imprint: NYRB Classics
Language: English

In English for the first time, a panoramic satire about the star-making machine, set in celebrity-obsessed Weimar Berlin.

In Berlin, 1930, the name Käsebier is on everyone’s lips. A literal combination of the German words for “cheese” and “beer,” it’s an unglamorous name for an unglamorous man—a small-time crooner who performs nightly on a shabby stage for laborers, secretaries, and shopkeepers. Until the press shows up.

In the blink of an eye, this everyman is made a star: a star who can sing songs for a troubled time. Margot Weissmann, the arts patron, hosts champagne breakfasts for Käsebier; Muschler the banker builds a theater in his honor; Willi Frächter, a parvenu writer, makes a mint off Käsebier-themed business ventures and books. All the while, the journalists who catapulted Käsebier to fame watch the monstrous media machine churn in amazement—and are aghast at the demons they have unleashed.

In Käsebier Takes Berlin, the journalist Gabriele Tergit wrote a searing satire of the excesses and follies of the Weimar Republic. Chronicling a country on the brink of fascism and a press on the edge of collapse, Tergit’s novel caused a sensation when it was published in 1931. As witty as Kurt Tucholsky and as trenchant as Karl Kraus, Tergit portrays a world too entranced by fireworks to notice its smoldering edges.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In English for the first time, a panoramic satire about the star-making machine, set in celebrity-obsessed Weimar Berlin.

In Berlin, 1930, the name Käsebier is on everyone’s lips. A literal combination of the German words for “cheese” and “beer,” it’s an unglamorous name for an unglamorous man—a small-time crooner who performs nightly on a shabby stage for laborers, secretaries, and shopkeepers. Until the press shows up.

In the blink of an eye, this everyman is made a star: a star who can sing songs for a troubled time. Margot Weissmann, the arts patron, hosts champagne breakfasts for Käsebier; Muschler the banker builds a theater in his honor; Willi Frächter, a parvenu writer, makes a mint off Käsebier-themed business ventures and books. All the while, the journalists who catapulted Käsebier to fame watch the monstrous media machine churn in amazement—and are aghast at the demons they have unleashed.

In Käsebier Takes Berlin, the journalist Gabriele Tergit wrote a searing satire of the excesses and follies of the Weimar Republic. Chronicling a country on the brink of fascism and a press on the edge of collapse, Tergit’s novel caused a sensation when it was published in 1931. As witty as Kurt Tucholsky and as trenchant as Karl Kraus, Tergit portrays a world too entranced by fireworks to notice its smoldering edges.

More books from New York Review Books

Cover of the book The One-Straw Revolution by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book Picture by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book Paris Stories by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book Little Reunions by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book An Episode of Sparrows by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book Nature Stories by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book Austerity Measures by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book A Time to Keep Silence by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book The Glory of the Empire by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book Cyclogeography: Journeys of a London Bicycle Courier by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book The Rim of Morning by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book The Glassblower's Children by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book The Year of the French by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book The Traveller's Tree by Gabriele Tergit
Cover of the book Hav by Gabriele Tergit
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy