Jakob Wassermann (1873–1934)

Jakob Wassermann was born to a Jewish family in Fürth, Bavaria, Germany. His father was a shopkeeper, He had an unhappy childhood after his mother died when he was young. He began to write at an early age and published pieces in small newspapers. After completing his military service, he stayed in southern Germany and worked for the satirical weekly Simplicissmus in Munich. In 1896, he published his first novel, Melusine. He moved to Vienna, Austria, where he became a theater critic. At this time, he got to know other writers in the Young Vienna circle such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Thomas Mann. He first successful novel was Die Juden von Zirndorf (1897, English translation The Dark Pilgrimage), and he increased his reputation with Caspar Hauser (1908). His two-volume epic about European civilization on the brink of war, Christian Wahnschaffe (The World's Illusion, 1919), brought him international fame. His novel Der Fall Maurizius (The Maurizius Case, 1928), which introduced the detective Etzel Andergast, became the first volume of a popular trilogy that included Etzel Andergast (1931) and Joseph Kerkhovens dritte Existenz (Joseph Kerkhoven's Third Existence, 1934). Wassermann published an autobiography, Mein Weg als Deutscher und Jude (My Life as a German and a Jew) in 1921. His books were banned and burned by the Nazis in the 1930s.