My Way as a German and a Jew. “I was rather like Moses coming from Mount Sinai, except that I had forgotten what I had seen there and what God had spoken to me about.” Jakob Wassermann (1873-1934) was one of the foremost writers of his day. In this new translation of his emotive autobiography “My Way as a German and a Jew”, Wassermann tells us of the agony of being caught between two powerful traditions, the German and the Jewish. With great perspicacity and fierceness, he probes the question of belonging, a concept which also passes through the mental filter of many children today who come from a multi-ethnic background. With wry cynicism and a keen eye, the author makes his way through a life subjected to the pull and push of both traditions. To his intense frustration, those around him, friend or foe, constantly denied Wassermann's ability to be anything other than a Jew. He certainly recognised the Jewish elements in himself and identified with this description: “Jews had an ear that listened, an eye that examined. They were able to discover a secret, understand wonder . . .” Wassermann’s autobiography is an uncompromising attempt to understand why the German core of his character was negated and what that meant for him and his work. He takes us through the brutal Jewish experience of the pre-war years of the 20th century; in desperation caused by poverty, he once threatened his step-mother with a knife. His opinions on power, greed, and the dilution of societal development are as valid today as they were when he wrote this book in 1921; a fact that is both worrying and sobering. This is proven by the fact that Wassermann’s words are still being reprinted and quoted today; in the bestselling “The Hare with Amber Eyes” by Edmund de Waal, for example. In “My Way as a German and a Jew”, Wassermann has given us universal, timeless writing. A book of today from a voice of the past.
Author
Jakob Wassermann (1873 – 1934) was a German writer and novelist of Jewish descent. Born in Fürth, he was the son of a shopkeeper and lost his mother at an early age. He showed literary interest early and published various pieces in small newspapers. Because his father was reluctant to support his literary ambitions, he began a short-lived apprenticeship with a businessman in Vienna after graduation. He completed his military service in Nuremberg. Afterward, he stayed in southern Germany and in Switzerland. In 1894 he moved to Munich. Here he worked as a secretary and later as a copy editor at the paper Simplicissimus. Around this time he also became acquainted with other writers Rainer Maria Rilke, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Thomas Mann. In 1896 he released his first novel, Melusine. Interestingly, his last name (Wassermann) means "water-man" in German; a "Melusine" (or "Melusina") is a figure of European legends and folklore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers. From 1898 he was a theater critic in Vienna. In 1901 he married Julie Speyer, whom he divorced in 1915. Three years later he was married again to Marta Karlweis. After 1906, he lived alternatively in Vienna or at Altaussee in der Steiermark where he died in 1934 after a severe illness. In 1926, he was elected to the Prussian Academy of Art. He resigned in 1933, narrowly avoiding an expulsion by the Nazis. In the same year, his books were banned in Germany owing to his Jewish ancestry. Wassermann's work includes poetry, essays, novels, and short stories. His most important works are considered the novel Der Fall Maurizius (1928) and the autobiography, My Life as German and Jew (Mein Weg als Deutscher und Jude) (1921), in which he discussed the tense relationship between his German and Jewish identities.
