Florian Illies — 1913: The Year Before the Storm

It’s hard being a history nerd with no opportunity or, frankly, desire to do your own research. That’s why I’m always grateful for books like this one, that give me more than the political backdrop we are taught at schools and satisfy my curiosity without making me study.

This is a book about the amazing 1913, year before the Great War started, when artists and writers and philosophers that would shape the 20th century were creating, having love problems, still going to school and being brats, or only just being born. Hitler was a failed but trying hard artist, Mona Lisa was lost, Kafka was that guy who says “I have nothing to offer you and I’m a horrible person but won’t you be with me anyway!?” and then cries when you say no, Kokoscha was Kokoscha, August Macke was lovely and Georg Trakl’s sister had a miscarriage and the worst part was that he wasn’t sure if the baby was her husband’s, his best friend’s or his own.

I guess what surprised me the most was how many of the names mentioned in the book I knew. Fact is, I’m not big on visual arts. I can appreciate “beauty” and I love paintings as historical evidence but I never learned to appreciate art like Andy Waldorf’s or pretty much anything that falls under the umbrella of “modern art” — and I do understand what huge area I’m covering by saying that. Even Cubism is one of those things that make me go “ok but my six year cousin could do this, I don’t understand.” I was just always more into word as art form. Spoken, written, sang, pretentious, slang, whatever, I love it all.

One of my favorite artists is Zinaida Serebriakova and her paintings are more like photographs than anything else.

Which actually reminds me, the book sadly doesn’t cover a lot of Russians. My favorite, Yesenin, isn’t mentioned at all, Mayakovsky, Gorky etc all unmentioned. Oh well. The book focuses on Central and Western Europe.

So what do we learn about these people and the way of life in 1913? WELL.

1. Unsurprisingly, artists are drama kings and queens. Soooo many of them “hate all women” but then “fall in love with this one woman who is the most special but OH NO turns out she’s just like all the others!” Kafka is the absolute worst and suddenly the fact that I couldn’t read his books makes so much sense.
2. Somewhat more surprisingly, to me, philosophers were WAY more dramatic. I don’t know why I expected philosophers to have have their lives in order but nope.
3. Polyamory and homosexuality were so incredibly common in the early 20th century that it is terrifying to think what a powerful influence church was, that it managed to make them both not only legally banned but also individually hated.
4. While there are some women mentioned in the book, it was still clear that both art and philosophy were men’s world and women were to be inspiration, cause, sometimes catalyst, but never the artist or the thinker.
5. I discovered some new names I want to explore. Franz Werfel, August Macke and Heinrich Kuhn (mainly his photography). And a new book that went straight to the top 10 books I have to read: Der Tunnel by Bernhard Kellermann. Until I get to it though, I might watch one of the movies instead.
6. It is terrifying to see normal lives happening when you know what’s about to happen.

As for the writing, the book was easy to read despite the flowery sentence structure — tip: not every noun needs an adjective. There are some sarcastic little comments that I found funny and some hints of what the future holds that were incredibly sad. I demand a sequel with my favorite Russian poets and writers. #Misery

There are, of course, random hilarious facts from people’s lives, that everyone should find out on their own. :)