The lived experiences of two authors, Siegfried von Vegesack and Werner Bergengruen, provide a fascinating lens into the reality of migration and identity in twentieth-century Europe. Forced to leave their Baltic homeland and forge new lives in Germany, both authors contended with life under the Nazi regime and the social upheaval that took place after its fall. In this illuminating examination of the relationship between migration and literature, Martyn Housden interrogates how the experience of displacement informed the authorship of each figure. By charting how their writing interpolated the period’s many ruptures, this study offers an unrivalled insight into the complexities of identity and nationhood in a conflict-torn continent. 

Martyn Housden is Emeritus Professor of Modern History at the University of Bradford, in the UK. Specializing in the history of refugees, Baltic Germans, and of Central and Eastern Europe, he is a member of the Baltic Historical Commission. His publications include: Helmut Nicolai and Nazi Ideology (St. Martin’s Press, 1992); Hans Frank. Lebensraum and The Holocaust (Palgrave Macmillan 2003); and On their own Behalf. Ewald Ammende, Europe's National Minorities and the Campaign for Cultural Autonomy 1920-1936 (Rodopi/Brill 2014).

“This is a fascinating book on two Baltic German writers from the early to mid-twentieth century, [which] represents a pioneering attempt in English to introduce Bergengruen and von Vegesack.” • James Koranyi, Durham University