Lissabon 1941: Stadt der Spione, Hafen der Hoffnung

Book Presentation & Conversation with Alexander Smoltczyk, Berlin | As part of the event series "On the Ropes: Midterms in America"

A picturesque city by the sea—and a waiting room where world history awaits its departure. That is exactly what Lisbon was in 1940–41: the last escape route from a continent in flames. Anyone who wanted to escape Hitler’s henchmen and seek a precarious freedom on the other side of the Atlantic had to head to the Portuguese capital. Star reporter Alexander Smoltczyk—a foreign correspondent for *Der Spiegel* for decades and a multiple recipient of the Henri Nannen and Egon Erwin Kisch prizes—recounts in his nonfiction book the tragic, cinematic life along the Tagus. British spies lie in wait for German agents, while both sides haggle over war-critical ores and salty sardines to supply the troops. Joining us in the waiting room: Josephine Baker. The exiled Windsors. Hannah Arendt on the run. And an agent named Ian Fleming, who gathers material here before inventing James Bond.