Bitter Bread

Three writers in exile in London, between creativity and destruction.

The triumvirate H. G. Adler, Elias Canetti and Franz Baermann Steiner is one of the most interesting groups of exiles in the German post-war era. These three men created a new form of committed writing that acted between literature and politics. Their precarious position as authors formed the basis of their self-perception; in spite of being persecuted and deprived of their rights, they understood themselves as being responsible for banishing the dangers of the modern world. They saw through the horror of the time, and fought back against the attacks the century brought with it. They were extradited, at the mercy of circumstances, they suffered. They lost their identity and their home – and yet they used the power of language to break down barriers, counteract terror and restore the world in a new form.


Jeremy Adler, born in 1947, is the son of the writer H. G. Adler (1910 – 1988) and a professor emeritus for German at King’s College London. Publications include: Franz Baermann Steiner: Zivilisation und Gefahr: Wissenschaftliche Schriften (Franz Baermann Steiner: Civilisation and Danger: Scientific Writings, co-ed., 2008); H. G. Adler, Theresienstadt 1941 – 1945. Das Antlitz einer Zwangsgemeinschaft (H. G. Adler, Theresienstadt 1941 – 1945. The Face of an Involuntary Community, ed., 2005); Elias Canetti, Party im Blitz (Elias Canetti, Party in the Blitz, co-ed., 2003); Franz Baermann Steiner: Am stürzenden Pfad: Gesammelte Gedichte (Franz Baermann Steiner: On the Falling Pathway: Collected Poems, ed., 2000); H. G. Adler: Eine Reise. Roman (H. G. Adler: A Journey, Novel, ed., 1999). His first novel, »The Magus of Portobello Road«, was published in 2015.