Dreamers. When the Poets Took Power

Complete English translation available (published with Pushkin Press 1st Nov. 2018)
SPIEGEL-bestseller (12 weeks / highest ranking: #15)
Recommended as a `Book of the Year 2018´ in the Spectator (GB)

At the end of the First World War in Germany, the journalist and theatre critic Kurt Eisner organised a revolution which overthrew the monarchy, and declared a Free State of Bavaria. In February 1919, he was assassinated, and the revolution failed.

But while the dream lived, it was the writers, the poets, the playwrights and the intellectuals who led the way. As well as Eisner, Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke, and many other prominent figures in German cultural history were involved.

In his characteristically lucid, sharp prose, Volker Weidermann presents us with a slice of history – November 1918 to April 1919 – and shows how a small group of people could have altered the course of the twentieth century.

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China: Shanghai Sanhui Culture & Press / Denmark: Turbine / Great Britain (World English): Pushkin Press / Greece: Agra / Hungary: K.U.K. Könyv / Spain: Arpa / Sweden: Lind & Co.

  • Publisher: Kiepenheuer&Witsch
  • Release: 09.11.2017
  • ISBN: 978-3-462-04714-1
  • 288 Pages
  • Author: Volker Weidermann
Dreamers. When the Poets Took Power
Volker Weidermann Dreamers. When the Poets Took Power
Vera Tammen
© Vera Tammen
Volker Weidermann

Volker Weidermann , born in 1969, was the host of Germany's most important literary talk show on TV. Since 2021, he has been head of the literature and arts section of DIE ZEIT. He is the author of numerous books, including  Ostend. Stefan Zweig, Joseph Roth and the Summer before the Dark and Dreamers .