Beyond Berlin Giacomo Casanova: The Twilight of a Man and the Birth of a Myth
Beyond Berlin
Stories —big and small— that start in Berlin and look eastward, where Europe´s heart beats and its future unfolds. A blog, a podcast and a journey connecting past and present of our continent, as seen from Berlin and looking beyond, toward the East. Subscribe on beyondberlin.substack.com
Today's episode:
📖 Giacomo Casanova, the twilight of a man and the birth of a myth
What remains of Giacomo Casanova, three hundred years after his birth? An adventurer, a libertine, a swindler? Or the protagonist of one of the greatest autobiographies ever written?
In this episode, I take you to Duchcov, a remote Bohemian village where Casanova spent the last thirteen years of his life. Alone, ill, yet tireless, he transformed his existence into literature, leaving us over 3,600 pages of his Histoire de ma vie.
A "Central European twilight" that gave birth to a myth: controversial, ambiguous, sometimes scandalous, but impossible to erase. From the censored pages of the nineteenth century to the interpretations of Schnitzler, Zweig and Tsvetaeva, to Fellini's cinema, each era has reinvented its own Casanova.
🏰 Duchcov in Bohemia: The place of legend
📅 The tercentenary (1725-2025)
👴 The Duchcov years (1785-1798)
✍️ The birth of the literary myth
📚 The fate of the manuscript
🏺 The legacy
Casanova in Central European Literature: my selection
🎭 Arthur Schnitzler - "Casanova's Homecoming" (1918)
📖 Stefan Zweig - "Three Poets of Their Lives" (1928)
🎪 Marina Tsvetaeva - "The End of Casanova" (1922)
Memorable Quotes
"He had lived as no other; and did he not live in his own way even today?" — Arthur Schnitzler
"No man can read Casanova's memoirs without furious envy" — Stefan Zweig
"Time has passed. My hour strikes." — Casanova in Marina Tsvetaeva's version
Suggestions
📚 Books**:**
Leo Damrosch - "The Life and Times of Giacomo Casanova" (2022) - analysis of the "dark side"
Lothar Müller - "Die Feuerschrift" (2025) - Casanova as a witness of his time
🎬 Film adaptations:
Federico Fellini (1976) - "Fellini's Casanova"
French film (1992) with Alain Delon
Gabriele Salvatores (2023) with Toni Servillo
"Casanova at Dux Castle" (Casanova auf Schloss Dux) (1981), GDR TV film
📍 Places to visit:
Schloss Duchcov - his apartments in the castle
Palazzo Mocenigo, Venice - exhibition "Casanova: myth through art, history and cinema" (until 2 November 2025)
Music Credits
🎶 Intro/Outro music & theme: “Happy Klezmer” by zec53
🎶 Music segments:
Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046 (1721)
Christoph Willibald Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice: Dance of the Blessed Spirits (1762)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Don Giovanni / Overture (1787)
🎶 SFX from Freesound Community
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