Salka and Berthold Viertel House facts for kids

The Salka and Berthold Viertel House at 165 North Mabery Road in Santa Monica, California, was the home of the Austrian screenwriter Salka Viertel and her husband Berthold from 1933 to 1944. This house became a very important place for many artists and thinkers who had to leave their home countries.

A Special Meeting Place for Artists

The Viertel family's house became a famous gathering spot. It was a place where many German writers, artists, and thinkers who had left their home country could meet. This group included people involved in what was called Exilliteratur, which means "exile literature." They met in Los Angeles during the 1930s and 1940s. Another similar meeting place was Lion Feuchtwanger's Villa Aurora nearby.

The Viertel Family's Journey

Salka and Berthold Viertel moved from Germany to Los Angeles in 1928. They came with their three children. Before moving, the couple had started a theater group called Die Truppe in 1923. Berthold took a job writing for their friend, the filmmaker F. W. Murnau, because they were having money problems.

Finding Their Home in Santa Monica

Before buying the house on Mabery Road, the Viertels lived on Fairfax Avenue. The first rent for the new house was $900 for three months. After that, it was $150 per month. Salka bought the house for $7,500 in 1933. The price was low because the property market was struggling after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake.

Famous Guests at the Salons

Salka Viertel hosted special gatherings called "salons" on Sunday afternoons. These were like informal parties where people discussed ideas. Many famous guests came to these events. They included writers like Heinrich Mann and Thomas Mann, the playwright Bertolt Brecht, and the composer Arnold Schoenberg. The filmmaker F. W. Murnau and the scientist Albert Einstein also visited.

One book described Viertel's gatherings as "An outpost of Mitteleuropa." This meant it felt like a piece of Central Europe, with friendly conversations and home-cooked meals. Other guests who did not speak German included the British writer Aldous Huxley and the actor Charlie Chaplin.

A Statement for Freedom

On August 1, 1943, several people who had left their home countries met at the Viertel's house. They wanted to write a statement to support the National Committee for a Free Germany. This group had formed in Russia. After many hours of discussion, they finally agreed on a statement. However, Thomas Mann later decided not to support it. He worried it might seem like they were working against the Allied forces fighting Germany.

Challenges and Changes

Salka Viertel faced some difficulties later on. In 1942, she was added to a list of people the FBI watched. In 1951, the American government added her to a list of people they thought might have communist sympathies. This happened during a time known as the Red Scare, when there was a lot of fear about communism.

Salka and Berthold Viertel divorced in 1944. Berthold moved back to Europe in 1949. In 1953, Salka tried to get a passport to visit him, but it was denied. This was because of the government's concerns about her. Salka eventually moved to Switzerland to live with her son, Peter Viertel, and his wife, Deborah Kerr.

A House of Connections

The Swedish actress Greta Garbo often visited the house. She first met her friend Mercedes de Acosta at a party there. Salka Viertel wrote about her years living in California in her 1969 book, The Kindness of Strangers.

In May 2015, the house was put up for sale for $4.595 million. It was the first time the house had been for sale since the 1970s.