The Villa in Berlin

At Freiherr-vom-Stein-Straße in Berlin-Schöneberg, where the stately Berlin villa of a Jewish family once stood, now there is a gap between buildings. Likewise there’s a gap in family memory after 1934, when the Grüngards fulfilled their long-cherished Zionist dream by emigrating to Palestine. The grandchildren’s generation knew the villa, where the grandmother invited to glamorous salon parties, only from hearsay. Only through intensive research did the blind spot gradually come into focus. What came to light was the fascinating story of a family whose villa had been a social meeting place for Eastern Jewish and Zionist circles in the late 1920s, a place where Jewish poets, painters, actors, philosophers and politicians came together. They all appreciated the social and cultural commitment of the wayward landlady Braina Grüngard. Anat Feinberg not only tells Braina’s story, but also traces the family’s experiences in Berlin during the Weimar years.

Anat Feinberg, born in Tel Aviv, was a lecturer in English Literature and Theater Studies at Ben Gurion University and Tel Aviv University. Since 1997 she has been an honorary professor of Hebrew and Jewish Literature at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien in Heidelberg.
Feinberg published extensively on Hebrew and Jewish literature, on German-Jewish Literature and theater, as well as on English and German theater.