Irmgard Keun in conversation with Christa Maerker
Irmgard Keun, the writer from Cologne, left her homeland in 1936, disgusted by the sight of German fascism. In 1940, still hunted by the Nazis, shre returned illegally. After the war there was only silence from the author about whom Tucholsky remarked that she had the humour of a fat man combined with the gracefulness of a woman. She has emerged from oblivion with the new editions of her novels - the most famous of which, "After Midnight", was filmed in 1981, directed by Wolf Gremm.
In conversation with Christa Maerker, a Berlin journalist, and her editor Klaus Antes she talks about her escapes and journeys, her passion for writing and for life itself, her books, and the writers she shared her years in exile with: Joseph Roth (for some years her companion), Kisch, Eisler, Zweig, Toller, Heinrich Mann, Kesten, Tucholsky, Fallada, Ringelnatz, Döblin...