“‘Of Saints and Villains’ – Notes on Alexander Eliasberg's Translations for the Insel Publishing House” examines the correspondence between the translator Alexander Eliasberg, the writer Stefan Zweig and the publishing house Insel-Verlag with regard to translations from Russian and Yiddish into German that appeared in the series “Insel-Bücherei”, “Bibliotheca mundi”, and “Pandora” between 1913 and 1924. A close reading of the letters (from archives in Prague and Weimar) aims to explore the process of cultural mediation as an interaction between translator (Eliasberg), editor (Zweig) and publisher (Kippenberg) in its material, mental, and cultural dimensions.