The German-Jewish poet Rose Ausländer was born in 1901 in Czernowitz, in what was then the Austrian crown colony of Bukovina. Beginning with World War I, Bukovina became a pawn in the interests of surrounding states. The resulting turmoil severely affected the multiethnic and multilingual university city of Czernowitz. The old glory of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was never regained. At the age of 20, the poet had to leave her homeland because her mother could no longer support the family after the death of her father. The daughter emigrated to the USA but repeatedly traveled back and forth between America and Europe. During World War II, she supported her elderly mother in Czernowitz and narrowly escaped Nazi terror. During a final stay in New York from 1946 to 1964, she created numerous works.