"Everyone has to help themselves here."

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"Here everyone has to help themselves." Paula, Josef and Frieda Fruchter: Letters from a Viennese family of musicians in exile in Shanghai 1941-1949
(Sophie Fetthauer, von Bockel Verlag 2024)

In 1941, shortly before the general ban on leaving the country was issued, the Viennese couple Paula and Josef Fruchter and their daughter sought refuge in Shanghai, which was shaken by war and colonial conflicts. By then, the city had already taken in a good 18,000 mostly Jewish Nazi refugees, including an above-average number of musicians. Despite all the difficulties, the musical life there offered a broad field of activity, including for the Fruchters, who established themselves in secular and sacred musical life and as music teachers until they left the city in 1949, first for Israel and then for Austria.
It is historically remarkable that the Fruchters regularly sent letters to their family and friends in Vienna during their exile. Under the pressure of censorship and self-censorship, these letters reflect socio-historical aspects of musical life in the extreme situation of Shanghai, as they incorporate emotional states, private views and everyday moments, addressed to recipients in Vienna who themselves lived in fear of persecution, deportation and war.
Correspondence from exile in Shanghai is rare. In a project funded by the German Research Foundation, Sophie Fetthauer therefore compiled an edition of letters at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama in 2023/24. This has now been published together with a historical-biographical study by von Bockel Verlag and will be presented by her at the book launch. The speaker Peter Bieringer will read from the letters.

Contributors
Dr. Sophie Fetthauer, lecture
Peter Bieringer, reading

Eintritt frei

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