The House on Rothschildallee

Frankfurt around 1900. The cloth merchant Johann Isidor Sternberg and his family have moved into the house at Rothschildallee 9. His wife Betsy is pregnant for the second time. Parental ambition and a father's pride weigh heavily on their firstborn son, Otto, who is expected to realize his father's dreams. While the family is at a spa in Baden-Baden in 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, is assassinated in Sarajevo. The family quickly travels back to Frankfurt. On August 1st, Germany is at war. Everyone believes it will be over by Christmas. When the Kaiser's "balcony speech" at the outbreak of war is made public in Frankfurt, Johann Isidor Sternberg has tears in his eyes. "This is the day we have always waited for. Finally, the fatherland calls its Jewish sons." With a wealth of historical details, Stefanie Zweig describes the lives of the people, their fears and worries. The practical resilience of women in difficult times is addressed, as is the disillusionment of a man who wanted to be a good German, who would have given everything for a fatherland that never considered him an equal, and who turns back to his Jewish roots. With wonderful images, Stefanie Zweig portrays the life of this middle-class family; she masterfully succeeds in transforming the tragedy of the era into a reading pleasure through warmth and a good dose of humor.


Manufacturer / Responsible Person:
Langen Müller Verlag GmbH, Thomas-Wimmer-Ring 11, 80539, Munich, Germany, info@langenmueller.de