The Berlin of the 1920s provided a home and transitional staging post for innumerable Russian emigrants, including many artists and intellectuals. The influx was so great that people even spoke of a »Russian Berlin«.
The art and literary magazine »Zhar-ptitsa« (The Firebird) began to appear in 1921 in one of the many Russian publishing houses in Berlin at that time. This magazine offered essays on contemporary art, reviews of ballet and theatrical performances as well as poems and prose by emigrated authors. Nevertheless, there were no reflections on what was happening in their old home country.
Great attention was paid to the design of this magazine. The quality of its reproductions of the works of outstanding Russian artists and illustrators was excellent.