As part of the 75th anniversary of Lettrétage, one of tonight’s readings is dedicated to the last volume from exiled publishing house Querido Amsterdam, put out in 1950 in honor of Klaus Mann. With texts, family stories and the explosive feud between Mann and Gottfried Benn.

"The last volume published by the German-language exile publishing house Querido Amsterdam was and is dedicated to Klaus Mann. His sister Erika—who neither appears as an author nor is mentioned in the imprint—initiated the volume. The foreword, which reads like a eulogy, was written by their father, Thomas Mann. It is interesting to note that Erika Mann, who was unforgiving toward those who had served the Nazi regime, included the poet Gottfried Benn. At the beginning of Nazi rule, Benn aligned himself with its ideology and, in this regard, engaged in a dispute with his former admirer Klaus Mann, some of which was conducted publicly. Benn turned away from this ideology while the dictatorship was still in power and acknowledged Klaus Mann's early clairvoyance in his assessment of the Nazi regime."