Mann, Erika

Erika Mann (1905-1969) was a queer writer, actress, and cabaret artist who was well-connected to the European artistic elite and avant-garde, and was at the forefront of the major aesthetic and cultural debates in the first half of the 20th century. She created a name for herself as a theater actress and playwright throughout the 1920s. Her satirical and sardonic journalism explored gender roles and framed women as autonomous artistic subjects; she was also a vocal critic of fascism and the ascending Nazi-regime and wrote from exile starting in 1933. Her other works include travelogs, instructional primers, and children’s books.