Max Reinhardt and Helene Thimig: the pioneer of modern director’s theatre and the celebrated actress. Schloss Leopoldskron, where Reinhardt co-founded the Salzburg Festival, was both his home for almost two decades and a meeting place for the European cultural elite. However, this chapter of his life was brought to an abrupt close by the political events of the late 1930s. Forced to emigrate, Reinhardt tried in vain to build on his earlier successes in the United States, while his wife jostled for supporting roles in Hollywood. The neglected correspondence between the two, published by the Reinhardt researchers Edda Fuhrich and Sibylle Zehle on the 150th anniversary of Reinhardt’s birth, offers a window into the bleakness of their lives as émigrés and recounts the love between two people caught up in difficult times.