The archive of publishing house Allert de Lange traversed the world, just as did the German language writers-in-exile who shaped it and make it such interesting reading now. In 1940 it was confiscated by the Nazis and left Amsterdam only to return there in 1991, via Berlin, Dresden, Moscow, and Potsdam. More about the archive's history can be found in the inventory.
The exile of De Lange authors such as Bertolt Brecht, Max Brod, Ödön von Horvath, Joseph Roth, and Stefan Zweig started in 1933 when Hitler took power. At first they settled in a neigbouring country, but later, as the fascist threat expanded, they dispersed all over the world. Brecht for instance travelled from Prague to Switzerland, Paris, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Moscow, the USA, and finally to Berlin.