USC Libraries

In September 2011, the USC Libraries hosted To Stay or Not to Stay?, the fifth biennial conference of the International Feuchtwanger Society (IFS). The three-day gathering explored one of the key decisions faced by German-speaking exiles in Los Angeles: whether to remain in Southern California or return to Europe. Now, the proceedings have been published in book form. Edited by IFS president Ian Wallace, the book includes contributions by two USC librarians. Marje Schuetze-Coburn, senior associate dean of the USC Libraries and Feuchtwanger Librarian, wrote "Lion Feuchtwanger in Los Angeles," and Exile Studies Librarian Michaela Ullmann contributed "Literary Agent, Advisor, Entrepreneur: Felix Guggenheim’s Life and Business on Two Continents."

Several rare items from the USC Libraries' Special Collections are featured in Pages, an exhibitition at the Williamson Gallery at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Keep reading to learn more about the exhibit, which runs through January 27.

A special evening of programming at Villa Aurora on Thursday, October 25 commemorates Marta Feuchtwanger—an important figure within Los Angeles' German exile community and the wife of novelist Lion Feuchtwanger—on the 25th anniversary of her death. Keep reading to learn more about Celebrating Marta Feuchtwanger: An Extraordinary Woman, which features a talk by USC Libraries Senior Associate Dean and Feuchtwanger Librarian Marje Schuetze-Coburn.

Actor Curt Lowens will join USC history professor Wolf Gruner in conversation on Monday, March 26 in Doheny Library. Born in 1925 in East Prussia (now Poland), Lowens is a Holocaust survivor who, after being released from the Westerbork transit camp, joined the resistance against the Nazis. After the war, Lowens moved to the United States with his family and became a respected stage, film, and television character. Keep reading to learn more about the event, presented by the USC Libraries’ Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, the USC Dornsife 2020 Research Cluster Resisting the Path to Genocides, and the USC Shoah Foundation Institute.

A recent Curbed LA post about Thomas Mann's 1941 Pacific Palisades house--available for rent for $15,000 a month--highlighted USC's Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, Villa Aurora, and Los Angeles' German exile community. "You know what Angelenos don't talk about enough? The German intellectual scene in LA in the thirties and forties," writes Adrian Glick Kudler. "There's been lots of scholarly work done (USC's Feuchtwanger Memorial Library is dedicated to the subject), but the topic hasn't really had its moment in the sun the way, say, Red Cars or Aimee Semple McPherson or anything Old Hollywood have."

A finding aid for the USC Libraries' Marta Feuchtwanger Papers collection is now available online. Keep reading to learn more about Feuchtwanger and the 97-linear-foot collection.

On September 14, historians, librarians, and other scholars from around the world convened at USC’s Doheny Memorial for the fifth biennial conference of the International Feuchtwanger Society. The three-day conference, To Stay or Not to Stay?, explored one of the key decisions faced by German-speaking exiles in Los Angeles: whether to remain in Southern California or return to Europe. Keep reading to learn more about the conference and about the European artists and intellectuals who made Southern California their home during the Second World War.

This week, scholars from around the world convene at the USC Libraries for the fifth biennial conference of the International Feuchtwanger Society. From Wednesday, September 14 through Friday, September 16, historians, librarians, and other experts will discuss the experiences of the artists, intellectuals, and other German-speaking exiles who fled persecution in Nazi-controlled Europe for the safety of Southern California. Keep reading to learn more about the conference, titled To Stay or Not to Stay? (Bleiben oder Zurück-kehren).

Iranian writer Amir Hassan Cheheltan has arrived in Los Angeles as the 2011 Feuchtwanger Fellow. Born in Tehran, Cheheltan is a novelist and short story writer whose work has been subject to censorship. Cheheltan himself has survived two attempts on his life, and in 1999 he fled Iran amid a wave of violence against the nation's intellectuals. Two years later, he returned to Tehran and has since continued publishing his work. Keep reading to learn more about Cheheltan and the Feuchtwanger Fellowship, a parntership of USC's Feuchtwanger Memorial Library with Villa Aurora and important human rights organizations.

Harold von Hofe, professor emeritus of German at USC, died on February 3 at the age of 98. Von Hofe, who befriended the Jewish-German author Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta in the 1940s, was instrumental in bringing the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library to USC. To learn more about von Hofe, read Dan Knapp's article on the USC News website.