How is the child born with a paraplegia who, according to the doctors, should remain mentally handicapped throughout his life, a daring and idealistic pioneer? In 1930/31, at the height of her fame, Alma M. Karlin writes an autobiography full of wit and (self-) irony over the first thirty years of her life - at the same time a bold, humorous and critical view of the early 20th century until the end of the First World War. Translated into Slovenian in 2010, Karlin's autobiography "Ein Mensch wird" is published for the first time in German, with an afterword by Karlin biographer Jerneja Jezernik.