Back Again? Valeska Gert’s Exiles

This chapter questions what exile means for an artist whose performances relied on a strategy of estrangement. In so doing, it follows Valeska Gert (1892–1978) through her American exile and back to Germany, exploring the shifting dynamics of her reception abroad and upon her return to a very changed homeland. Gert came into the public eye as a soloist in the late teens, touring mostly through Germany but also abroad during the Weimar Republic. From 1933 to 1938, Gert appeared in European cities, including London, Paris, Budapest, Krakow, and Prague, as well as in New York. In 1939 she emigrated to the United States and eventually ran one of the more successful exile cabarets in New York from 1941 to 1945, named the Beggar Bar. After the Beggar Bar closed for licensing problems, she decided to return to Germany.