Mascha Kaléko – The Nightingale in My Garden Is Silent

About this event

In this musical reading, actress and singer Judith Jakob brings the life and work of Mascha Kaléko to the stage. She draws on Kaléko's poems, diary entries, and letters to paint a portrait of a poet who captured the everyday humour and heartache of Berlin's 'little people' in the 1920s and 30s — a voice often compared to Erich Kästner and Heinrich Heine for its sharp, tender observation of urban life. Jakob's recitation is interwoven with Joachim Jezewski's live piano, creating a quiet, reflective atmosphere that lets the words do the talking. Kaléko's story is one of displacement: born in what is now Poland, she found early fame in Weimar Berlin, saw her books banned by the Nazis, and spent decades in exile in America before a late move to Israel. The evening follows that arc through her writing, touching on themes of love, loss, home, and the ache of being a foreigner. The programme does not lecture — instead it lets the bittersweet tone of Kaléko's verse speak for itself, at times wryly funny, often deeply moving. The performance, about two hours with a short break, is part of the Frankfurter Bürgerstiftung's annual 'Woche gegen das Vergessen' (Week Against Forgetting), which commemorates the victims of National Socialism around the anniversary of the November pogroms. It is a seated, contemplative event held in the intimate Holzhausenschlösschen — a room that suits the personal character of the material. If you are curious about a poet whose name deserves wider recognition or simply want an evening of finely crafted language and music, you'll find a warm, unpretentious tribute here.