Mein Herz

This love novel, featuring images and real living people, takes you right into the life of the Berlin bohemia before World War I. In letters to her husband, Herwarth Walden, Else Lasker-Schüler shares stories revolving around the Café des Westens, writing with verve and wit about all matters of the heart. "And love, Herwarth, you know what I think of love; if it were a flag, I would conquer it or fall for it." Against this real backdrop, a virtuoso game of confusion unfolds between reality and fantasy: the world of literary and artistic avant-garde, art exhibitions, theater performances, cabarets, variety shows, and cafés suddenly becomes the realm of Else Lasker-Schüler's poetic alter ego, Prince Jussuf of Thebes. And here as there, it holds true: "The heart is emperor." This volume presents, for the first time since its original publication in 1912, the text of the first edition along with all the illustrations by Else Lasker-Schüler and the portrait of the poet by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, accompanied by a commentary and afterword by Ricarda Dick that elucidates the text.