Exposition Opening: Malraux- From Berlin to Madrid

In English; exposition signage is in French

This exposition, created in partnership with the Bibliothèque Nationale Universitaire de Strasbourg, gathers together some of the photographs and documents from the period of André Malraux's activities during the 1930s.

The 1930s are some of André Malraux’s richer and most intense years. His fight against Nazism and Fascism, as well as his closeness with the Communist International, will greatly impact on his works. A significant testimony of this is his short novel Le Temps du mépris, which will later inspire filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub in 2014.

As a public figure, he takes part in political meetings, signs petitions and calls for mobilisation. So do many of his peers, like André Gide and Henri Barbusse. However, Malraux is one of the few to enlist in the Spanish Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War, along with George Orwell. Together, they warn that this devastating conflict may be nothing but a dress rehearsal for a war that could soon set all of Europe ablaze.

By creating the «escadrille España» within the Spanish Republican Air Force, he joins the ranks of international volunteers who come to the aid of the Spanish Republic and takes part in air raids. This adventure inspires him to write one of his greatest novels, L’Espoir, as well as his only film, Sierra de Teruel, which is released just before the onset of the Second World War.