The Lost Ones

Zapomniani

The Lost Ones are stories of people who were born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their individual fates give insight into big, dramatic events in world history.

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In 1924, a woman entered the capital of Tibet after having travelled thousands of kilometres on foot. It was the first time a foreigner had crossed the border of the sacred city. This mythical feat, one of many by Alexandra David-Néel, made the reputation of this explorer, writer, anarchist, feminist and traveller.

Alexandra David-Neel: An Adventurer in Tibet

Victor Lustig was a brazen liar who loved the high life. In 1925, he pulled off the biggest con of all - literally. Convincing a group of industrialists that he was selling the Eiffel tower for scrap metal, he skipped town with the downpayment in his pocket. But his life of crime eventually catches up with him. 

Victor Lustig was a brazen liar who loved the high life. In 1925, he pulled off the biggest con of all - literally

Victor Lustig, the Con Artist Who Sold the Eiffel Tower

Reporter, photographer, poet: Annemarie Schwarzenbach shone in the night sky of the 20th century, her life bright and brief. Horrified at the rise of facism and the outbreak of war, she fled to travel the world with her lover. Morphine and writing become her refuge. 

Horrified at the rise of facism and the outbreak of war, Annemarie Schwarzenbach fled to travel the world with her lover

Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Literature's Fallen Angel

In 1930, New York was bewitched by a new sound, seemingly coming out of thin air: the theremin, invented by the Russian engineer Lev Sergeyevich Termen. He created the first electronic instrument in history, and won praise from both Lenin and Stalin. But he was a double agent, and things would turn sour fast.

There's an instrument invented in the 1930s that you can play without ever even touching it - you just pull the notes out of the air, as if by magic

Lev Sergueïevitch Termen's Magical Soviet Instrument

The Marchioness Casati was admired throughout Europe for her incredible parties and expensive tastes. She was an eccentric patron of the arts, and her face appears again and again in the works of all the notable painters of her day. But she would rip through her inheritance by the age of fifty and end up wondering the streets of London, going though rubbish bins.

The Marchioness Casati went from living in a palace to eking out an existence on the streets of London

Luisa Casati, the Ruined Marchioness

A talented tennis player winning the US and French Opens, Gottfried von Cramm was such a champion that Hitler wanted to make him the poster boy for the Nazis. But von Cramm had other ideas.

Homosexual and anti-Nazi, von Cramm was an outstanding tennis player detested by Hitler.

Gottfried von Cramm, The Nazi Tennis Darling

He was both the most adored and the most feared of the Italian aviation aces during the Great War. Addicted to risk, he joined the utopian enclave of Fiume in 1919, with commander Gabriele d'Annunzio. Guido Keller, the dandy, the eccentric, took part in the spectacular and delirious experiment of creating a dream society.

He was both the most adored and the most feared of the Italian aviation aces during the Great War and he took part in the spectacular and delirious experiment of the Free State of Fiume.

Guido Keller: The Activist Aviator

Prospector Jakko Isola went to the icy wilderness of northern Finland in the hope of finding gold. What he found instead was inner peace in the beauty and tranquillity of the far North. That is until he finally did uncover gold…

Jaakko Isola's Cursed Gold

He was the Mozart of the mind. One of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, Monsieur Chouchani was an enigma. He lived as a tramp with almost no possessions. He was self-taught, spoke ten languages, and inspired love and loyalty among the greatest and the best.

One of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, Monsieur Chouchani was an enigma

Monsieur Chouchani, the Vagabond Luminary

On the shores of the Red Sea he was known as the Sea Wolf.  The extraordinary story of the man who had been everything: Writer, sailor, privateer, arms and hashish dealer.

Henry de Monfreid

In the First World War, a deserted French soldier pretended to be a woman for years in order to escape execution. As Suzanne, Paul Grappe led a dissolute life in Parisian cabarets during the Roaring Twenties. But eventually, his disordered life and worsening mental state caught up with him.

In the First World War, a deserted French soldier pretended to be a woman for years in order to escape execution

Paul Grappe, Trans Deserter

In the 19th century, a young nobleman called Isabelle Eberhardt travelled to the Maghreb to learn about Arab culture and Islam. In Algeria she rode alone in the Sahara under the name Si Mahmoud, dressed in men's clothes. The eccentric, independent and rebellious woman made a name for herself as a writer before her tragically premature death.

Isabelle Eberhardt was a writer and traveller who was way ahead of the time 

Isabelle Eberhardt, Queen of the Sahara

Yukio Mishima is one of the most important authors of his generation. In his work, he dealt with the relationship between art and the body, and his own body's inevitable decline haunted him. At the age of 45, he committed suicide by Harakiri in front of a shocked and fascinated crowd.

Yukio Mishima is one of the most important authors of his generation

Yukio Mishima: Writer Until Death

In 1917, a young American journalist was sent to Russia to report on the revolution. In Petrograd, John Reed witnessed as much of the turmoil as he could and kept detailed records, which eventually become his famous book Ten Days That Shook the World. But the socialist dream turned sour, and Reed's life was as brief as it was brilliant. 

John Reed's experiences of the Russian revolution eventually become his famous book Ten Days That Shook the World

John Reed, American Witness to the Russian Revolution

Alma Mahler was a central figure of the Viennese art, literature and music scene in the early 20th century. She is considered a femme fatale who charmed many of the great artists of her day. But her own art - her music composition - was forbidden by Gustav Mahler, her first husband. She complied with his edict, but abandoning music for the sake of her marriage left her bitter and twisted. 

Alma Mahler's husband forbade her to compose, so she lived the rest of her life with the void music left behind

Alma Mahler, Frustrated Conductor

Basile Zaharoff is one of the richest people of his time. The enigmatic, unscrupulous businessman led many lives. He was a tourist guide in Constantinople, artillery officer, bank clerk in Egypt and a diplomat. But most of all, he was an arms dealer who, as Europe's merchant of death, made a killing supplying both sides with the means to kill. 

Basile Zaharoff was an arms dealer who made a killing 

Basile Zaharoff, The Merchant of Death

Séraphine de Senlis is one of the most important French painters of naïve painting. She was an uneducated woman who earned a living as a cleaning lady. But one day a vision from God told her to pick up a paint brush. Entirely self-taught, from then on she painted incessantly until her mental illness took over. She died in 1942 in a mental hospital.

Séraphine de Senlis was an uneducated cleaning woman until one day a vision from God told her to start painting

Séraphine de Senlis, The Painter's Delirium

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in the worst place at the worst time twice over. On August 6, 1945, he was working in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb exploded over the city. Traumatised by the apocalyptic experience, he just wanted to go back home to his family. Except home was Nagasaki. 

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was traumatised by Hiroshima, and went back home as soon as he could. Except home was Nagasaki. 

Yamaguchi, Survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The French naval officer Benjamin Ullmo got addicted to opium in Vietnam in the early 20th century. Back in France, he continued to indulge his addiction and to meet the demands of a lover with expensive taste. In spiralling debt, he decided to steal confidential documents to blackmail the navy with. .

Addicted to opium and overwhelmed with debt, one navy officer came up with a desperate scheme 

Benjamin Ullmo, The Price of Opium

Leonore Heinz worked in the 1950s as a secretary at the Foreign Office in Bonn where she met the charming Heinz Sütterlin. They got married. He asked her, under the guise of being afraid of the Cold War, to smuggle documents out of her office for him to look at. She complied, suspecting nothing. But eventually the ruse was discovered: he's a KGB spy. She was devastated. 

The Foreign Office secretary Leonore Heinz unwittingly married a KGB spy and aided him in his espoinage 