ERNST TOLLER SPEAKS AT THE WORLD CONGRESS OF WRITERS IN NEW YORK, 8–10 MAY 1939

Abstract

This article investigates Ernst Toller's last public speech, ‘How Can Culture Survive Exile?’, which he delivered at the World Congress of Writers on 9 May 1939, in New York City. I first discuss the context of the speech, the writers’ congress, which took place alongside the World's Fair in New York and was organised under the auspices of the American PEN Centre and its president, Dorothy Thompson. Following that I describe Toller's relationship with Thompson. I then investigate Toller's speech and his arguments about German culture in exile, the duties and difficulties of exiled writers, and his calls to action. The last part of the article compares the published version of the speech with a later manuscript that has not been published to this day. It was broadcast on 16 May 1939, on the US radio station WNYC. Some passages in the later version differ from the speech that Toller had delivered a week earlier, most importantly by proposing a new initiative to support exiled writers. This change in the later manuscript is interpreted as a response to discussions at the World Congress of Writers. It also shows that after Franco's victory in Spain, Toller continued to develop new initiatives for the future.