In 1939, the most perilous year of her life, Clara was forced to emigrate from her city of origin, Berlin, toward a distant and uncertain destiny. As she journeyed alone into the unknown, she searched for understanding in the history of the great metropolis and turned to her collection of memories from her adolescence at the dawn of the twentieth century. This was the time of La Belle Époque – the Beautiful Era; an extraordinary age of optimism and promise and one of the most dramatic transformations of culture in the progress of mankind. The illuminating celebrities of the era traveled to the Prussian capital to affirm their careers and announce themselves on the world stage. Clara’s experiences, and those of the many significant figures she learned of and chanced upon, portray Berlin at a time when the imperial city and a young lady were coming of age.
