Weimar Under the Palms Author Discussion

At this event, DORIS BERGER (Vice President of Curatorial Affairs at the Academy Museum) will discuss with author THOMAS BLUBACHER his recently translated book Weimar under the Palms: Pacific Palisades, German Exiles, and the Invention of Hollywood.

In the book, Blubacher details the ambiguous and mixed fates of the Jewish intellectuals and cultural figures who fled Nazi Germany and settled in Southern California in the 1930s–1940s, in the process creating a unique cultural sanctuary. While many of these émigrés found great success writing, directing, or composing for the film industry, some never quite fit into their new surroundings, feeling as if they were stuck in a “sun prison” far from home.

Thomas Blubacher is a Swiss theater scholar, author, director, and cultural journalist. He works as a freelance author and director, staging productions at municipal, state, and regional theaters across the German-speaking world. He is the author of numerous books, including biographies of Gustaf Gründgens and the double biography Gibt es etwas Schöneres als Sehnsucht? Die Geschwister Eleonora und Francesco von Mendelssohn, which received international praise.

Doris Berger is Vice President of Curatorial Affairs at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. She was previously a curator at the Skirball Cultural Center, where she curated the exhibition Light & Noir: Exiles and Emigres in Hollywood, 1933–1950. At the Academy Museum she has curated multiple shows, including Cyberpunk: Envisioning Possible Futures. She is the author of Projected Art History: Biopics, Celebrity Culture, and the Popularizing of American Art along with numerous essays in German and English on art and film, gender and exile studies.

This event, cosponsored by the USC Libraries and Max Kade Institute, is being held in conjunction with Sanctuary and Scrutiny: German-Speaking Exiles and the Politics of Belonging, an exhibit on display in Doheny Memorial Library during fall 2025. For information on the exhibition, please contact Taylor Dwyer, Curator of Feuchtwanger Memorial Library at tdwyer@usc.edu