Peteani:Der Page vom Dalmasse Hotel

Like so many others, young Friedel Bornemann is urgently looking for a job in Berlin. She has hardly any money, can't afford her own room and is plagued by existential angst. When a friend tells her that the renowned Hotel Dalmasse is looking for a lift attendant, she has an idea. She could pretend to be a man. So she quickly cuts off her hair, puts on her predecessor's uniform and starts working in her new position as a bellboy. Of course, no one is allowed to notice, as Friedel - now Friedrich Kannebach - is terrified that her deception will be discovered. But she does well in the posh hotel cosmos, growing more and more into her new role, until the arrival of Miss Mabel Wellington from Philadelphia brings turbulence to the hotel. Friedel, alias Friedrich, proves to be a resourceful detective and uncovers a long-planned scam, but runs the risk of being exposed as a fraud himself. Maria Peteani has written a fast-paced entertainment novel about a travesty born of necessity. In the closed cosmos of the grand hotel, the paths of crisis profiteers, soldiers of fortune, social climbers and economic relegates and the staff living on the breadline cross. The Page from the Dalmasse Hotel was first published in 1927 and was made into a film in 1933 and 1958. With print runs of up to 200,000 copies and film adaptations, Maria Peteani would have a firm place in today's literary bestseller lists, but like many other authors, she was unable to repeat the popular success of the 1920s after the Second World War. With an afterword by Peter Zimmermann.