Prayer After the Slaughter - Kurt Tucholsky

No one before or after Kurt Tucholsky has captured the horrors of the “Great War,” as World War I was known, quite like he did. The famed Weimar writer, who would become one of Germany’s best-known satirist and journalists, describes surviving in the trenches and fighting a losing battle, the arrogance of the officers and the desperation of the loved ones back home. His writing is similar to that of Heinrich Heine, his role model, in that it appears superficially simple but is replete with hidden meanings. His works are touching, stirring, and precisely to the point. He brings alive the war that still looms even into our own 21st century. This is the first bilingual anthology in German and in English of his works on World War I.

The First World War was the “Great War”. Everything that happened after this war, even into our own 21st century, is contingent on the years between 1914 and 1918. The Great War also shaped Kurt Tucholsky who emerged from the war.. His style is biting, satirical, and penetrating, full of Berlin gallows humor. This bilingual anthology contains English translation of his short stories as well as a rendition of his poetry about World War I, all representative of his style.