Irina Liebmann
Would it be nice? It would be nice!
My Father, Rudolf Herrnstadt
memoir/biography, new
»Would it nice? It would be nice!« is the headline of one of the many lead articles written by the brilliant journalist Rudolf Herrnstadt. The communist from a Jewish family in Upper Silesia moved to Berlin early in his life and became famous in the Weimar Republic as an editor of the Berliner Tageblatt. He was shaped by long stays in Moscow, where he founded a family. After his return to Germany, he became editor-in-chief of the Communist Party’s main news organ in the German Democratic Republic, pugnacious as ever. Due to his criticism of the Party’s poor treatment of human beings, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) ultimately kicked him out.
Irina Liebmann’s conversations with contemporary witnesses paint a picture of a passionate, ironic, humorous, and radical man who time and time again managed to get under his comrades’ skin. Herrnstadt’s vision of a society in which the individual could develop freely tragically failed. A major historical figure, this book brings him to life.
Reviews
»Irina Liebmann revives the terror and the hopes of an entire epoch in this biography of her father.«
Leipziger Buchpreis, the jury
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