The Villa Aurora, 520 Paseo Miramar,

Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles Pacific Palisades is a neighborhood in the Westside region of the city of Los Angeles, California, situated about west of downtown Los Angeles. Throughout January 2025, the majority of Pacific Palisades was severely affected and destroyed by ...

, has been an artists' residence since 1995. It is the former home of the

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...

author

Lion Feuchtwanger Lion Feuchtwanger (; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Republic, Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht. ...

and his wife Marta. The Feuchtwangers bought this Spanish-style

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

in 1943. The house was a popular meeting place for artists and the community of German-speaking émigrés. Lion Feuchtwanger wrote six of his historical novels in this house: ''The Day Will Come'', ''Proud Destiny'', ''The Jewess of Toledo'', ''Tis folly to be wise'', ''Jephthah and his Daughter'', and ''This is the Hour''. Today, the villa is operated by two institutions: the Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V., situated in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, and the Friends of Villa Aurora Inc. in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. It offers fellowships for artists-in-residence to stay at the villa, for German-based writers, visual artists, composers, and filmmakers.

Construction

Villa Aurora was part of a building project initiated by Arthur Weber and George Ley in cooperation with the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', which reported routinely on the construction of this "demonstration house". Weber hired architect Mark Daniels and interior designer Rodney Benso. The house pipe organ was built by Santa Monica Artcraft. The wood for the ceilings was brought in from Spain and the fountains came from Italy. When Villa Aurora was finished in 1928, it featured the latest technological inventions and novelties in domestic design such as an electric garage openers, a dishwasher, a fridge and a gas range. Due to the depression, it was not sold, and the developer Weber and his family were forced to move in themselves in 1931. Financial problems forced Weber to leave the house in 1939 and the property sat idle. 20170224 VATMH-Mirko Lux

The Feuchtwangers

In 1941, Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta arrived in Los Angeles via New York and Mexico after having escaped from the South of France. Lion Feuchtwanger liked the solitude for his work and the decision to purchase the house came easily. Here, Feuchtwanger created his third library. Marta bought the used furniture and took care of the garden. While Lion used to buy books whenever there was money to spend, Marta bought plants and created a huge garden, which was over time diminished in size through landslides. During the war the Villa became a meeting place for fellow émigrés, just as Salka and Berthold Viertel's house in Santa Monica. Prominent members of the German emigre community who would meet at the houses included

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

and Heinrich Mann,

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

, Vicki Baum, Bruno Frank, Ludwig Marcuse,

Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of '' The Forty ...

and

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

, as well as other European expatriates like

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

and Charles Laughton. After Lion's death in 1958 the house was left to the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

with the stipulation that Marta would be allowed to stay for the remainder of her life and was made the caretaker of the library, which had grown to 30,000 volumes. At present the Villa is still home to 22,000 books, with the most valuable copies having been moved to the USC Feuchtwanger Memorial Library.

Artists-in-residence

Marta Feuchtwanger lived at Villa Aurora until her death in 1987. After Marta's death the University of Southern California was looking to sell the property. The sale of the dilapidated Villa seemed imminent and USC professor Harold von Hofe asked the journalist and Feuchtwanger biographer Volker Skierka to launch an initiative to save the Villa Aurora. He also won the support of many public figures in politics and the media, such as the former head of the publishing house Rowohlt, Fritz J. Raddatz, and member of the German parliament, Freimut Duve. The goal was to create a "Villa Massimo on the Pacific" modeled after the artists residency Villa Massimo in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. In order to preserve the house as the only existing monument to European and German exiles to the West Coast of the United States, the association "Friends and Supporters of Villa Aurora" was founded in Berlin. The non-profit organization secured public funding from the German Federal Foreign Office, the Berlin Senate, the Berlin Lottery Foundation and the Tagesspiegel Foundation and was able to purchase and renovate the house. Frank Dimster, FAIA, restored the house and received the City of Los Angeles Historic Preservation Award in 1996. The Feuchtwanger House was landmarked as one of the

Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments are sites which have been designated by the Los Angeles, California, Cultural Heritage Commission as worthy of preservation based on architectural, historic and cultural criteria. History The Historic-Cul ...

and also by the Pacific Palisades Historical Society. The historic organ that in addition to Marta Feuchtwanger, Bruno Walter,

Ernst Toch Ernst Toch (; 7 December 1887 – 1 October 1964) was an Austrian composer of European classical music and film scores, who from 1933 worked as an émigré in Paris, London and New York. He sought throughout his life to introduce new approaches t ...

and Hanns Eisler had played on, was restored in 2010. The historic furniture, including the beds of Marta and Lion, and their desks and chairs, are still on the premises. Villa Aurora serves as an artists' retreat offering residency fellowships for German-based writers, visual artists, composers, and filmmakers.The villa is still owned by the Berlin-based non-profit, but is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. In 2015, filmmaker Edward Berger was awarded a fellowship to spend six months at Villa Aurora. Together with the USC Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, the organization awards an annual Feuchtwanger Fellowship to artists who are persecuted in their home countries in memory of the history of German

emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

in the 1930s. Sponsors and private donations further help to maintain the historic property. The Villa stands as a reminder of German exile in the United States and is a memorial to German-Exile-Culture and the persecution of the German Jews. Villa Aurora is a place for cultural encounters, creative debates and joint projects. Since 1995 around 300 artists have enlivened this place and have themselves been inspired by U.S. culture and the exiles' traces. The Villa Aurora Forum in Berlin organizes the meetings of the selection committees which choose the fellows of Villa Aurora. The Forum also presents the results of the artists' works to the German public through exhibitions, screenings, readings, concerts and the publishing of editions. At the annual 'Villa Aurora Nacht' in Berlin, the newly chosen fellows are presented along with the work of the ones from the previous year.

Berlin office

The Villa Aurora is operated by two institutions: the Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V., situated in Berlin, and the Friends of Villa Aurora Inc., in Los Angeles. In addition to administering the selection of grant recipients and the organization's overall funding, the Berlin Office produces programs and publications featuring alumni presenting results of their stays in Los Angeles to the German public. The Berlin office also develops programs focused on current transatlantic debates as well as the history of exile. Regular events include both an annual reception, which brings future fellows and alumni together with representatives from culture, politics, media, the sciences and humanities, as well as the commemoration of the Burning of the Books on May 10, 1933. The office is situated at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities on Gendarmenmarkt. Once a year, the organization arranges meetings of the juries responsible for selecting artists for the Villa Aurora Fellowships and intellectuals addressing fundamental issues of our time for the Thomas Mann Fellowships. As a result of intense discussion, experts choose recipients for the subsequent year from a large number of applicants. For those selected, the Berlin office is the first point of contact: It is where they outline their projects and plans and work with the Berlin team to initiate contacts with partners in Los Angeles. Together with

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...

and the University of Southern California's Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, Villa Aurora and Thomas Mann House e.V. grants its annual Feuchtwanger Fellowship to a writer or journalist committed to human rights or facing censorship and persecution in their home countries. Additionally, the Berlin team, in cooperation with a partner institution, invites an artist from Los Angeles to Berlin to foster sustainable cultural exchange with Villa Aurora and Thomas Mann House alumni.

''Checkpoint California''

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Villa Aurora as an institution for cultural exchange in the US, the event ''Checkpoint California'' took place at the . Between June 12 and 28, 2015, Villa Aurora Fellows (e.g. Dietrich Brüggemann, Stefan Kriekhaus, Uljana Wolf, Heinz Emigholz,

Rosa von Praunheim Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky (born Holger Radtke; 25 November 1942), known professionally as Rosa von Praunheim, is a German film director, author, producer, professor of directing and one of the most influential and famous LGBT social move ...

, Steven Warwick, Veronika Kellndorfer, Steve Rowell, Felicitas Hoppe) presented their work, gave lectures and talked about their current projects. During the last day, moderator Jörg Heiser led a panel with future Villa Aurora fellow

Susan Philipsz Susan Mary Philipsz Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 1965) is a Scottish artist who won the 2010 Turner Prize. Originally a sculpture, sculptor, she is best known for her Sound art, sound installations. She records herself singing a cappe ...

and former fellow Christian Jankowski. ''Checkpoint California'' ended with a performance by Matan Zamir, Nicola Mascia, Claudia De Serpa Soares and Jeff Wood.

Fellows

Past fellows of the artist-in-residence program include: * Maren Ade, 2012 * Peter Ablinger, 2001 * Wolfgang Becker, 2000 * Edward Berger, 2015 * Vajiko Chachkhiani, 2019 * Irene Dische, 1997 * Gerald Eckert, 2010 * Jochen Alexander Freydank, 2010 * Stefan Goldmann, 2017 * Durs Grünbein, 1997 * Helene Hegemann, 2011 * Thomas Hettche, 2002 *

Christoph Hochhäusler Christoph Hochhäusler (born 10 July 1972) is a German film director and screenwriter. His film ''I Am Guilty, Falscher Bekenner'' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. His film ''The City Below'' was scr ...

, 2005 * Felicitas Hoppe, 2012 * Lorenz Kienzle, 2024 * Kemal Kurt, 1999 * Philipp Lachenmann, 2003 * Michael Lentz, 2001 * Klaus Modick, 2009 *

Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postd ...

, 1995 * Carsten Nicolai, 2004 * Marc Sabat, 2010 * , 2010 * Judith Schalansky, 2010 * Hannes Stöhr, 2006 * Thomas Struth, 2013 * Yoko Tawada, 1997 * Ilija Trojanow, 2006 *

, 1998 * Sasha Waltz, 2015 * Hendrik Weber, 2014 * André Werner, 2000 * Haegue Yang, 2017

References

External links

* {{Coord, 34.04626, -118.55599, format=dms, type:landmark_region:US-CA, display=title Exilliteratur Jews and Judaism in California Houses completed in 1928 Houses in Los Angeles Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles Spanish Revival architecture in California University of Southern California buildings and structures