From Berlin to Hollywood: The transatlantic and transmedial journey of Vicki Baum’s Menschen im Hotel (1929)

This study examines the transmedial trajectory of Menschen im Hotel, the 1929 bestselling novel by Austrian writer Vicki Baum, with particular attention to its Hollywood adaptation Grand Hotel, directed by Edmund Goulding and released in 1932. After outlining the various adaptation processes that took place between the novel’s publication in Berlin and its transformation into a Hollywood film, the paper situates the setting of the Grand Hotel as a modern transmedial and transatlantic topos. The subsequent analysis focuses on specific transatlantic encounters depicted in Baum’s novel and on their negotiated adaptation in Hollywood. These dynamics highlight, on the one hand, the reception of American culture in the Weimar Republic, and on the other, the complex transcultural negotiations that shaped Baum’s work across media and national contexts.