Harvey Cox
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691158853
- eISBN:
- 9781400848850
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691158853.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter illustrates the rich variety of the secularization process, looking at four cities representing four distinctive regions. These cities include New Delhi, Rome, Prague, and Boston. They ...
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This chapter illustrates the rich variety of the secularization process, looking at four cities representing four distinctive regions. These cities include New Delhi, Rome, Prague, and Boston. They represent the march of secularization and urbanization in, respectively, Southeast Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and the United States. Each of the four has felt the pressure of secularization differently, in part because of their diverse histories. The careers of these cities prove that the emergence of a world-wide urban civilization need not obliterate the distinctive coloration of particular cities or erase the uniqueness of their character. The chapter also demonstrates an important distinction made in an earlier chapter—the difference between secularization as a historical movement and secularism as ideology.Less
This chapter illustrates the rich variety of the secularization process, looking at four cities representing four distinctive regions. These cities include New Delhi, Rome, Prague, and Boston. They represent the march of secularization and urbanization in, respectively, Southeast Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and the United States. Each of the four has felt the pressure of secularization differently, in part because of their diverse histories. The careers of these cities prove that the emergence of a world-wide urban civilization need not obliterate the distinctive coloration of particular cities or erase the uniqueness of their character. The chapter also demonstrates an important distinction made in an earlier chapter—the difference between secularization as a historical movement and secularism as ideology.
Alan McDougall
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199276271
- eISBN:
- 9780191706028
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199276271.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
In communist East Germany, young people constituted the social group for whom the ruling authorities had the highest hopes — and in whom they were most frequently and bitterly disappointed. In this ...
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In communist East Germany, young people constituted the social group for whom the ruling authorities had the highest hopes — and in whom they were most frequently and bitterly disappointed. In this book, the author has undertaken a study of the East German communist youth organization, the Free German Youth (FDJ), and the young people that it tried, often in vain, to enthuse and control. Utilizing a wide range of primary sources, the author focuses upon East German youth during five ‘crisis points’ in the GDR's early history, beginning with the June 1953 uprising and concluding with the impact of the Czechoslovakian Prague Spring in 1968. In the process, he provides a political and social history of East German youth within and beyond the framework of ‘organized’ youth life. Important events in East German youth politics are analysed in detail, alongside the subversive role of Western youth culture in the GDR, particularly during the 1960s when ‘hot’ music by groups such as The Beatles penetrated the Iron Curtain. This book has important wider implications in the thriving field of GDR studies. It contends that there is little to be gained from viewing the history of East German youth politics — and that of the GDR more generally — through the narrow prism of totalitarian theory, with its heavy emphasis on the role of repression and Soviet military power in maintaining dictatorial rule. The relationship between rulers and ruled in the GDR was in fact based upon the dual precepts of coercion and consent, according to which the communist authorities sought both to appease and control the East German population. This model helps to explain the nature of youth dissent — both its proliferation and ultimate limitations — in the GDR. Despite an expanding secret police apparatus, youth dissent in the GDR was far more extensive than many Western scholars assumed in the Cold War era. Though much of this dissent was limited in character and intent, especially after the June 1953 uprising, it undermined the GDR's long-term stability — a fact reflected in the prominent role of former FDJ members in its collapse in 1989. By integrating social and political aspects at each stage of his study, the author provides a valuable study of the East German regime.Less
In communist East Germany, young people constituted the social group for whom the ruling authorities had the highest hopes — and in whom they were most frequently and bitterly disappointed. In this book, the author has undertaken a study of the East German communist youth organization, the Free German Youth (FDJ), and the young people that it tried, often in vain, to enthuse and control. Utilizing a wide range of primary sources, the author focuses upon East German youth during five ‘crisis points’ in the GDR's early history, beginning with the June 1953 uprising and concluding with the impact of the Czechoslovakian Prague Spring in 1968. In the process, he provides a political and social history of East German youth within and beyond the framework of ‘organized’ youth life. Important events in East German youth politics are analysed in detail, alongside the subversive role of Western youth culture in the GDR, particularly during the 1960s when ‘hot’ music by groups such as The Beatles penetrated the Iron Curtain. This book has important wider implications in the thriving field of GDR studies. It contends that there is little to be gained from viewing the history of East German youth politics — and that of the GDR more generally — through the narrow prism of totalitarian theory, with its heavy emphasis on the role of repression and Soviet military power in maintaining dictatorial rule. The relationship between rulers and ruled in the GDR was in fact based upon the dual precepts of coercion and consent, according to which the communist authorities sought both to appease and control the East German population. This model helps to explain the nature of youth dissent — both its proliferation and ultimate limitations — in the GDR. Despite an expanding secret police apparatus, youth dissent in the GDR was far more extensive than many Western scholars assumed in the Cold War era. Though much of this dissent was limited in character and intent, especially after the June 1953 uprising, it undermined the GDR's long-term stability — a fact reflected in the prominent role of former FDJ members in its collapse in 1989. By integrating social and political aspects at each stage of his study, the author provides a valuable study of the East German regime.
DIRK SPILKER
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199284122
- eISBN:
- 9780191712579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199284122.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter, which covers the period from 1950 to 1953, outlines the various offers for East-West negotiations extended by leaders of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) as well as the ...
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This chapter, which covers the period from 1950 to 1953, outlines the various offers for East-West negotiations extended by leaders of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) as well as the Kremlin in the aftermath of Germany's formal division. A united Germany based on Western-style bourgeois democracy was not envisaged by the leading communists because of the risk that such a Germany might end up in the Western camp. In the first few months after the founding of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), SED leaders focused on the ‘consolidation’ of their new state ‘in close/collaboration with the Soviet Union and the people's democracies’. This chapter looks at the SED's third congress and the elections of October 1950, the Prague declaration and the SED's new stance on the German Question, the 1951 referendum and the SED's campaign for all-German elections, the Soviet Union's proposed peace treaty with Germany, the SED's second party conference and its move towards socialism, and the political crisis of 1953 and the opportunity it presented for a German reunification.Less
This chapter, which covers the period from 1950 to 1953, outlines the various offers for East-West negotiations extended by leaders of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) as well as the Kremlin in the aftermath of Germany's formal division. A united Germany based on Western-style bourgeois democracy was not envisaged by the leading communists because of the risk that such a Germany might end up in the Western camp. In the first few months after the founding of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), SED leaders focused on the ‘consolidation’ of their new state ‘in close/collaboration with the Soviet Union and the people's democracies’. This chapter looks at the SED's third congress and the elections of October 1950, the Prague declaration and the SED's new stance on the German Question, the 1951 referendum and the SED's campaign for all-German elections, the Soviet Union's proposed peace treaty with Germany, the SED's second party conference and its move towards socialism, and the political crisis of 1953 and the opportunity it presented for a German reunification.
Robert Liberles
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195171648
- eISBN:
- 9780199871346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195171648.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter shows that Jews lived in a variety of settings. In most locations, Jews lived among the Christian population. In some cities, notably in the Frankfurt and Prague ghettos, they lived in ...
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This chapter shows that Jews lived in a variety of settings. In most locations, Jews lived among the Christian population. In some cities, notably in the Frankfurt and Prague ghettos, they lived in crowded conditions, with several families sharing a single unit. But in the majority of settlements, especially in the smaller towns and villages where most Jews lived, housing conditions could be more spacious. In such smaller communities Jews would allocate space to fill religious needs as well, ranging from synagogues and room to study to ritual baths and ovens. Wealthier Jews sought to improve their residences by living outside the accepted domains of Jewish residence, a move often opposed by the local authorities as a slight to Christian citizens and officials living in these more prestigious neighborhoods. For other Jews, residential restrictions often required that they move elsewhere to establish a family and a household.Less
This chapter shows that Jews lived in a variety of settings. In most locations, Jews lived among the Christian population. In some cities, notably in the Frankfurt and Prague ghettos, they lived in crowded conditions, with several families sharing a single unit. But in the majority of settlements, especially in the smaller towns and villages where most Jews lived, housing conditions could be more spacious. In such smaller communities Jews would allocate space to fill religious needs as well, ranging from synagogues and room to study to ritual baths and ovens. Wealthier Jews sought to improve their residences by living outside the accepted domains of Jewish residence, a move often opposed by the local authorities as a slight to Christian citizens and officials living in these more prestigious neighborhoods. For other Jews, residential restrictions often required that they move elsewhere to establish a family and a household.
Norman Housley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199552283
- eISBN:
- 9780191716515
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199552283.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
Circumstances caused the Czech lands from the 1420s through to the mid-1430s to become especially fertile territory for the practice of religious warfare and its interpretation. The followers of ...
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Circumstances caused the Czech lands from the 1420s through to the mid-1430s to become especially fertile territory for the practice of religious warfare and its interpretation. The followers of radical Tabor advocated the spreading of their beliefs through sanctified violence. Moderate Hussites argued for the defence of ‘God's Law’ by military force in terms of traditional just war discourse. Inevitably there was an interaction at the level of ideas between the Hussites' advocacy of armed action, and the series of crusades which were launched against them, though it is argued that in this respect the issue was more complex than simply challenge and response.Less
Circumstances caused the Czech lands from the 1420s through to the mid-1430s to become especially fertile territory for the practice of religious warfare and its interpretation. The followers of radical Tabor advocated the spreading of their beliefs through sanctified violence. Moderate Hussites argued for the defence of ‘God's Law’ by military force in terms of traditional just war discourse. Inevitably there was an interaction at the level of ideas between the Hussites' advocacy of armed action, and the series of crusades which were launched against them, though it is argued that in this respect the issue was more complex than simply challenge and response.
R. D. Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198206606
- eISBN:
- 9780191717307
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206606.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter first looks at some general theories about nationalism, such as those of Ernest Gellner and Miroslav Hroch, and at cases such as Norway, Finland, the Flemish movement in Belgium, Greece, ...
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This chapter first looks at some general theories about nationalism, such as those of Ernest Gellner and Miroslav Hroch, and at cases such as Norway, Finland, the Flemish movement in Belgium, Greece, and Romania. Within the Habsburg Empire, repression after 1848 eventually failed. After the creation of the ‘dual monarchy’ in 1867, Hungarian universities became expressions of Magyar culture, with few concessions to national minorities. In the western part of the empire, by contrast, concessions were made to the linguistic demands of Poles and Czechs, notably the creation of a Czech university at Prague in 1882. This in turn produced a backlash from German-speaking students, provoking the development of pangermanism and anti-Semitism. Jewish professors and students faced discrimination similar to that in Germany. On the eve of 1914, Habsburg universities were intellectually impressive, but nationalist tensions seemed to pose insoluble problems.Less
This chapter first looks at some general theories about nationalism, such as those of Ernest Gellner and Miroslav Hroch, and at cases such as Norway, Finland, the Flemish movement in Belgium, Greece, and Romania. Within the Habsburg Empire, repression after 1848 eventually failed. After the creation of the ‘dual monarchy’ in 1867, Hungarian universities became expressions of Magyar culture, with few concessions to national minorities. In the western part of the empire, by contrast, concessions were made to the linguistic demands of Poles and Czechs, notably the creation of a Czech university at Prague in 1882. This in turn produced a backlash from German-speaking students, provoking the development of pangermanism and anti-Semitism. Jewish professors and students faced discrimination similar to that in Germany. On the eve of 1914, Habsburg universities were intellectually impressive, but nationalist tensions seemed to pose insoluble problems.
Sharon Flatto
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781904113393
- eISBN:
- 9781800342675
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781904113393.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Kabbalah played a surprisingly prominent and far-reaching role in eighteenth-century Prague. This book uncovers the centrality of this mystical tradition for Prague's influential Jewish community and ...
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Kabbalah played a surprisingly prominent and far-reaching role in eighteenth-century Prague. This book uncovers the centrality of this mystical tradition for Prague's influential Jewish community and its pre-eminent rabbinic authority, Ezekiel Landau, chief rabbi from 1754 to 1793. A rabbinic leader who is best known for his halakhic responsa collection the Noda biyehudah, Landau is generally considered a staunch opponent of esoteric practices and public kabbalistic discourse. This book challenges such a portrayal, exposing the importance of kabbalah in his work and thought and demonstrating his novel use of teachings from diverse kabbalistic schools. It also identifies the historical events and cultural forces underlying his reluctance to discuss kabbalah publicly, including the rise of the hasidic movement and the acculturation spurred by the 1781 Habsburg Toleranzpatent. The book offers the first systematic overview of the eighteenth-century Jewish community of Prague, and the first critical account of Landau's life and writings, which continue to shape Jewish law and rabbinic thought to this day. Extensively examining Landau's rabbinic corpus, as well as a variety of archival and published German, Yiddish, and Hebrew sources, the book provides a unique glimpse into the spiritual and psychological world of eighteenth-century Prague Jewry. By unravelling and exploring the many diverse threads that were woven into the fabric of Prague's eighteenth-century Jewish life, the book offers a comprehensive portrayal of rabbinic culture at its height in one of the largest and most important centres of European Jewry.Less
Kabbalah played a surprisingly prominent and far-reaching role in eighteenth-century Prague. This book uncovers the centrality of this mystical tradition for Prague's influential Jewish community and its pre-eminent rabbinic authority, Ezekiel Landau, chief rabbi from 1754 to 1793. A rabbinic leader who is best known for his halakhic responsa collection the Noda biyehudah, Landau is generally considered a staunch opponent of esoteric practices and public kabbalistic discourse. This book challenges such a portrayal, exposing the importance of kabbalah in his work and thought and demonstrating his novel use of teachings from diverse kabbalistic schools. It also identifies the historical events and cultural forces underlying his reluctance to discuss kabbalah publicly, including the rise of the hasidic movement and the acculturation spurred by the 1781 Habsburg Toleranzpatent. The book offers the first systematic overview of the eighteenth-century Jewish community of Prague, and the first critical account of Landau's life and writings, which continue to shape Jewish law and rabbinic thought to this day. Extensively examining Landau's rabbinic corpus, as well as a variety of archival and published German, Yiddish, and Hebrew sources, the book provides a unique glimpse into the spiritual and psychological world of eighteenth-century Prague Jewry. By unravelling and exploring the many diverse threads that were woven into the fabric of Prague's eighteenth-century Jewish life, the book offers a comprehensive portrayal of rabbinic culture at its height in one of the largest and most important centres of European Jewry.
Scott Spector
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520219090
- eISBN:
- 9780520929777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520219090.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter talks about Prague German culture and the city's German-speaking Jewish population. For German culture was as central to bourgeois Jewish life in Prague as Jews seemed to be to its ...
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This chapter talks about Prague German culture and the city's German-speaking Jewish population. For German culture was as central to bourgeois Jewish life in Prague as Jews seemed to be to its production, funding, and appreciation. The generation of Franz Kafka, Felix Weltsch, Egon Erwin Kisch, and Max Brod grew into an awareness of the dilemma of culture and nation in Prague that the generations before them had been able to repress. Their early explorations of the constellation of issues attached to artistic production in postliberal Prague point to a tension between aesthetics and politics, art and life, text and context—in other words, the specific pathology of their very particular condition in this time and place put them in a privileged position vis-à-vis a set of issues at the center of the Modern.Less
This chapter talks about Prague German culture and the city's German-speaking Jewish population. For German culture was as central to bourgeois Jewish life in Prague as Jews seemed to be to its production, funding, and appreciation. The generation of Franz Kafka, Felix Weltsch, Egon Erwin Kisch, and Max Brod grew into an awareness of the dilemma of culture and nation in Prague that the generations before them had been able to repress. Their early explorations of the constellation of issues attached to artistic production in postliberal Prague point to a tension between aesthetics and politics, art and life, text and context—in other words, the specific pathology of their very particular condition in this time and place put them in a privileged position vis-à-vis a set of issues at the center of the Modern.
Laura Bradley
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199589630
- eISBN:
- 9780191595479
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589630.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, European Literature
After exploring reactions to the Prague Spring in the GDR's theatres, this chapter investigates stagings that were premièred after the invasion of Czechoslovakia and elicited contrasting responses ...
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After exploring reactions to the Prague Spring in the GDR's theatres, this chapter investigates stagings that were premièred after the invasion of Czechoslovakia and elicited contrasting responses from the authorities. At the Deutsches Theater, a production of Faust I by Adolf Dresen and Wolfgang Heinz evaded all pre‐performance controls, only for its iconoclasm and allusions to censorship to spark a scandal at the première. At the Berliner Ensemble, meanwhile, Manfred Karge and Matthias Langhoff were transforming Aeschylus's Sieben gegen Theben into a powerful allegory of the invasion of Prague. But as SED members at the BE alerted the authorities before the première, pre‐performance censorship averted a scandal. This chapter shows how the reliance on internal controls caused censorship practice to diverge, even in the same city.Less
After exploring reactions to the Prague Spring in the GDR's theatres, this chapter investigates stagings that were premièred after the invasion of Czechoslovakia and elicited contrasting responses from the authorities. At the Deutsches Theater, a production of Faust I by Adolf Dresen and Wolfgang Heinz evaded all pre‐performance controls, only for its iconoclasm and allusions to censorship to spark a scandal at the première. At the Berliner Ensemble, meanwhile, Manfred Karge and Matthias Langhoff were transforming Aeschylus's Sieben gegen Theben into a powerful allegory of the invasion of Prague. But as SED members at the BE alerted the authorities before the première, pre‐performance censorship averted a scandal. This chapter shows how the reliance on internal controls caused censorship practice to diverge, even in the same city.
Byron L. Sherwin
- Published in print:
- 1983
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197100516
- eISBN:
- 9781800340886
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9780197100516.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Judah Loew, better known as the Maharal of Prague, was a pivotal personality in late medieval European Judaism. Best known from the popular legend that credited him with the creation of a golem—an ...
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Judah Loew, better known as the Maharal of Prague, was a pivotal personality in late medieval European Judaism. Best known from the popular legend that credited him with the creation of a golem—an artificial human with superhuman powers—his true importance lay in his comprehensive exposition of a unique expression of Jewish mystical theology, his call for a reformation of Jewish communal life, and his influence on subsequent Jewish life and thought. This book, a lucid exposition of the life, legend, works, and ideas developed in Loew's massive writings, “reveals the concealed” by unravelling the often obscure nature of his mystical theology, his polemical jousts against past and contemporary Jewish scholars, and his innovative program for social and educational reform.Less
Judah Loew, better known as the Maharal of Prague, was a pivotal personality in late medieval European Judaism. Best known from the popular legend that credited him with the creation of a golem—an artificial human with superhuman powers—his true importance lay in his comprehensive exposition of a unique expression of Jewish mystical theology, his call for a reformation of Jewish communal life, and his influence on subsequent Jewish life and thought. This book, a lucid exposition of the life, legend, works, and ideas developed in Loew's massive writings, “reveals the concealed” by unravelling the often obscure nature of his mystical theology, his polemical jousts against past and contemporary Jewish scholars, and his innovative program for social and educational reform.
Gábor Bátonyi
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207481
- eISBN:
- 9780191677687
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207481.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This book emphasises the key role played by Britain in restoring peace and stability in central Europe after the First World War. It focuses on the endeavours of British ...
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This book emphasises the key role played by Britain in restoring peace and stability in central Europe after the First World War. It focuses on the endeavours of British diplomats in the 1920s to promote political integration and economic co-operation in the Danubia region. The work traces the gradual shift in British attitudes towards the small central European states, from one of active engagement to disinterest and even hostility. Three case studies of British foreign policy in Vienna, Budapest, and Prague support the novel thesis that British involvement in central European affairs was terminated as a result of Austrian, Hungarian, and Czechoslovakian unwillingness to co-operate, and not simply because of economic and political pressures from Germany.Less
This book emphasises the key role played by Britain in restoring peace and stability in central Europe after the First World War. It focuses on the endeavours of British diplomats in the 1920s to promote political integration and economic co-operation in the Danubia region. The work traces the gradual shift in British attitudes towards the small central European states, from one of active engagement to disinterest and even hostility. Three case studies of British foreign policy in Vienna, Budapest, and Prague support the novel thesis that British involvement in central European affairs was terminated as a result of Austrian, Hungarian, and Czechoslovakian unwillingness to co-operate, and not simply because of economic and political pressures from Germany.
Donald Prater
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158912
- eISBN:
- 9780191673405
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158912.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, European Literature
The most important works written during Rilke's stay in Paris and Rome are New Poems and his prose work Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Rilke continued to travel to Prague, Vienna, and Egypt, ...
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The most important works written during Rilke's stay in Paris and Rome are New Poems and his prose work Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Rilke continued to travel to Prague, Vienna, and Egypt, among many other places.Less
The most important works written during Rilke's stay in Paris and Rome are New Poems and his prose work Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Rilke continued to travel to Prague, Vienna, and Egypt, among many other places.
Ritchie Robertson
- Published in print:
- 1987
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158141
- eISBN:
- 9780191673276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158141.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter provides a picture of what being a Jew in Franz Kafka's Prague was actually like and discloses some of the complicated ways in which three cultures — German, Czech, and Jewish — ...
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This chapter provides a picture of what being a Jew in Franz Kafka's Prague was actually like and discloses some of the complicated ways in which three cultures — German, Czech, and Jewish — interpenetrated in Kafka's upbringing. It also suggests how Kafka's exploration of Jewish culture was related to his breakthrough into major literary achievement with Das Urteil, the story he wrote at a single sitting on the night of September 22–3, 1912. The Jews of Prague were a small group: in 1900 they numbered 26,342. Though some had Czech as their native language, the majority spoke German and probably formed between a third and a half of the city's German-speaking community. This chapter shows the close connection between Kafka's exploration of Judaism and the beginning of his career as a major writer. He drew extensively and intricately on two cultures, the German culture in which he was brought up and the specifically Jewish culture which he encountered most memorably in the Yiddish theatre, to produce a story which is a synthesis of both.Less
This chapter provides a picture of what being a Jew in Franz Kafka's Prague was actually like and discloses some of the complicated ways in which three cultures — German, Czech, and Jewish — interpenetrated in Kafka's upbringing. It also suggests how Kafka's exploration of Jewish culture was related to his breakthrough into major literary achievement with Das Urteil, the story he wrote at a single sitting on the night of September 22–3, 1912. The Jews of Prague were a small group: in 1900 they numbered 26,342. Though some had Czech as their native language, the majority spoke German and probably formed between a third and a half of the city's German-speaking community. This chapter shows the close connection between Kafka's exploration of Judaism and the beginning of his career as a major writer. He drew extensively and intricately on two cultures, the German culture in which he was brought up and the specifically Jewish culture which he encountered most memorably in the Yiddish theatre, to produce a story which is a synthesis of both.
Ritchie Robertson
- Published in print:
- 1987
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158141
- eISBN:
- 9780191673276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158141.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
By 1900, the population of Prague was approaching 400,000 and it was encircled by spreading working-class suburbs. Franz Kafka was worried by many of the effects of technology, but he was also ...
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By 1900, the population of Prague was approaching 400,000 and it was encircled by spreading working-class suburbs. Franz Kafka was worried by many of the effects of technology, but he was also fascinated by its latest developments. Among these were the cinema and the aeroplane. It would seem beyond doubt that the presentation of the world's most advanced industrial and technological society, by a method between realism and fantasy, was a major part of Kafka's project. America is not just the setting but the theme of the novel, though not its only theme: we know that Kafka's title for his book was Der Verschollene, placing the focus on Karl Rossmann. The moral and psychological themes surrounding Rossmann are familiar from Das Urteil and Die Verwandlung, the other stories Kafka wrote in the autumn of 1912. The single most important source for Kafka's critical view of America was the account by the journalist Arthur Holitscher of his travels in the United States and Canada. Religion, too, seems to be more characteristic of Europe than of America.Less
By 1900, the population of Prague was approaching 400,000 and it was encircled by spreading working-class suburbs. Franz Kafka was worried by many of the effects of technology, but he was also fascinated by its latest developments. Among these were the cinema and the aeroplane. It would seem beyond doubt that the presentation of the world's most advanced industrial and technological society, by a method between realism and fantasy, was a major part of Kafka's project. America is not just the setting but the theme of the novel, though not its only theme: we know that Kafka's title for his book was Der Verschollene, placing the focus on Karl Rossmann. The moral and psychological themes surrounding Rossmann are familiar from Das Urteil and Die Verwandlung, the other stories Kafka wrote in the autumn of 1912. The single most important source for Kafka's critical view of America was the account by the journalist Arthur Holitscher of his travels in the United States and Canada. Religion, too, seems to be more characteristic of Europe than of America.
Ritchie Robertson
- Published in print:
- 1987
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158141
- eISBN:
- 9780191673276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158141.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
World War I broke out when Austria declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. Two days earlier, Kafka returned to Prague. Kafka's fantasy of joining the army draws attention to his fascination with ...
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World War I broke out when Austria declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. Two days earlier, Kafka returned to Prague. Kafka's fantasy of joining the army draws attention to his fascination with great leaders, particularly Napoleon Bonaparte. Even when Napoleon is not explicitly invoked, Kafka likes describing his own life in terms of military imagery. The responsibility for defending society against primitive forces is the theme of Ein altes Blatt, which Kafka wrote in March 1917. Kafka's fiction is pervaded by a pessimistic interpretation of history as a process of decline. Martin Buber had been a staunch proponent of Zionism since 1898 and had nourished the current interest in mysticism by publishing an anthology of mystical testimonies, Ekstatische Konfessionen. He addressed the Bar Kochba three times in 1909 and 1910; in his early twenties, he temporarily dropped his Zionist activities and spent four years in an intensive study of Hasidism. In Ein Landarzt, Kafka drew on Western and Hasidic sources to express the responsibility which had fallen to ill-equipped individuals in an age of religious decline.Less
World War I broke out when Austria declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. Two days earlier, Kafka returned to Prague. Kafka's fantasy of joining the army draws attention to his fascination with great leaders, particularly Napoleon Bonaparte. Even when Napoleon is not explicitly invoked, Kafka likes describing his own life in terms of military imagery. The responsibility for defending society against primitive forces is the theme of Ein altes Blatt, which Kafka wrote in March 1917. Kafka's fiction is pervaded by a pessimistic interpretation of history as a process of decline. Martin Buber had been a staunch proponent of Zionism since 1898 and had nourished the current interest in mysticism by publishing an anthology of mystical testimonies, Ekstatische Konfessionen. He addressed the Bar Kochba three times in 1909 and 1910; in his early twenties, he temporarily dropped his Zionist activities and spent four years in an intensive study of Hasidism. In Ein Landarzt, Kafka drew on Western and Hasidic sources to express the responsibility which had fallen to ill-equipped individuals in an age of religious decline.
Ritchie Robertson
- Published in print:
- 1987
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158141
- eISBN:
- 9780191673276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158141.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Early on the morning of August 13, 1917, Franz Kafka woke up and found himself spitting blood. It was a haemorrhage, the first sign of what was diagnosed a few weeks later as pulmonary tuberculosis. ...
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Early on the morning of August 13, 1917, Franz Kafka woke up and found himself spitting blood. It was a haemorrhage, the first sign of what was diagnosed a few weeks later as pulmonary tuberculosis. His employers granted him extended sick-leave, and on September 12 he left Prague for the village of Zürau (now Siřem) in north-western Bohemia. He stayed there until April the following year, except for a brief visit to Prague at the end of October and a longer one over the Christmas and New Year period. The immediate effect of tuberculosis was to make Kafka feel healthier. Tuberculosis gave Kafka the sharp break with his earlier life that he had hoped conscription would provide. Kafka's aphorisms have generally been neglected by his critics, or, at best, treated as marginal glosses on his fiction. Kafka's aphorisms are related to traditions of Jewish thought.Less
Early on the morning of August 13, 1917, Franz Kafka woke up and found himself spitting blood. It was a haemorrhage, the first sign of what was diagnosed a few weeks later as pulmonary tuberculosis. His employers granted him extended sick-leave, and on September 12 he left Prague for the village of Zürau (now Siřem) in north-western Bohemia. He stayed there until April the following year, except for a brief visit to Prague at the end of October and a longer one over the Christmas and New Year period. The immediate effect of tuberculosis was to make Kafka feel healthier. Tuberculosis gave Kafka the sharp break with his earlier life that he had hoped conscription would provide. Kafka's aphorisms have generally been neglected by his critics, or, at best, treated as marginal glosses on his fiction. Kafka's aphorisms are related to traditions of Jewish thought.
Gábor Bátonyi
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207481
- eISBN:
- 9780191677687
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207481.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter begins by raising questions regarding Central Europe — which countries belong to this region, and where are the dividing lines between ...
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This chapter begins by raising questions regarding Central Europe — which countries belong to this region, and where are the dividing lines between Central and South-East Europe? Consequently, the book adopts the narrowest definition of Central Europe, and confines the geographical scope of British policy in Central Europe to the triangle of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. This reductive approach does not reflect current political definitions of Central Europe. What follows this chapter is a collection of three parallel case studies of British diplomatic history. This method has been chosen in order to demonstrate the continuously changing priorities of the Foreign Office in Central Europe. Although British experts treated Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia as a territorial unit, they regarded the late Austro–Hungarian Empire as reminiscence that should be better forgotten.Less
This chapter begins by raising questions regarding Central Europe — which countries belong to this region, and where are the dividing lines between Central and South-East Europe? Consequently, the book adopts the narrowest definition of Central Europe, and confines the geographical scope of British policy in Central Europe to the triangle of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. This reductive approach does not reflect current political definitions of Central Europe. What follows this chapter is a collection of three parallel case studies of British diplomatic history. This method has been chosen in order to demonstrate the continuously changing priorities of the Foreign Office in Central Europe. Although British experts treated Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia as a territorial unit, they regarded the late Austro–Hungarian Empire as reminiscence that should be better forgotten.
Gábor Bátonyi
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207481
- eISBN:
- 9780191677687
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207481.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
In 1920, a new centre of British influence in the heart of Europe was Prague. The Foreign Office did not intend to drop the Austrians, but a ...
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In 1920, a new centre of British influence in the heart of Europe was Prague. The Foreign Office did not intend to drop the Austrians, but a more active policy in Czechoslovakia, as advocated by the High Commissioner in Prague, seemed to have its merits. In pursuit of this end, Curzon set out to link Austria to the anti-Hungarian ‘bloc’ of the Successor States. British politicians opposed both Habsburg restoration attempts in Budapest in 1921. The Foreign Office backed the action by the Little Entente to obstruct the return of the Habsburg King to the Hungarian throne. Despite the eventual collapse of the Bank of England’s Central European project, the tough negotiations between London, Vienna, and Prague at least demonstrated an ephemeral British interest in the region.Less
In 1920, a new centre of British influence in the heart of Europe was Prague. The Foreign Office did not intend to drop the Austrians, but a more active policy in Czechoslovakia, as advocated by the High Commissioner in Prague, seemed to have its merits. In pursuit of this end, Curzon set out to link Austria to the anti-Hungarian ‘bloc’ of the Successor States. British politicians opposed both Habsburg restoration attempts in Budapest in 1921. The Foreign Office backed the action by the Little Entente to obstruct the return of the Habsburg King to the Hungarian throne. Despite the eventual collapse of the Bank of England’s Central European project, the tough negotiations between London, Vienna, and Prague at least demonstrated an ephemeral British interest in the region.
Scott Spector
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520219090
- eISBN:
- 9780520929777
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520219090.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book maps the “territories” carved out by German-Jewish intellectuals living in Prague at the dawn of the twentieth century. It explores the social, cultural, and ideological contexts in which ...
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This book maps the “territories” carved out by German-Jewish intellectuals living in Prague at the dawn of the twentieth century. It explores the social, cultural, and ideological contexts in which Franz Kafka and his contemporaries flourished, revealing previously unseen relationships between politics and culture. The readings of an array of German writers feature the work of Kafka and the so-called “Prague circle,” and encompass journalism, political theory, Zionism, and translation, as well as literary program and practice. With the collapse of German-liberal cultural and political power in the late-nineteenth-century Habsburg Empire, Prague's bourgeois Jews found themselves squeezed between a growing Czech national movement on the one hand and a racial rather than cultural conception of Germanness on the other. Displaced from the central social and cultural position they had come to occupy, the members of the “postliberal” Kafka generation were dazzlingly productive and original, far out of proportion to their numbers. Seeking a relationship between ideological crisis and cultural innovation, the author observes the emergence of new forms of territoriality. He identifies three fundamental areas of cultural inventiveness: Expressionism, a revolt against all limits and boundaries; a spiritual form of Zionism incorporating a novel approach to Jewish identity; and a sort of cultural no-man's-land in which translation and mediation took the place of “territory.” The investigation of these areas shows that the intensely particular, idiosyncratic experience of German-speaking Jews in Prague allows access to much broader and more general conditions of modernity.Less
This book maps the “territories” carved out by German-Jewish intellectuals living in Prague at the dawn of the twentieth century. It explores the social, cultural, and ideological contexts in which Franz Kafka and his contemporaries flourished, revealing previously unseen relationships between politics and culture. The readings of an array of German writers feature the work of Kafka and the so-called “Prague circle,” and encompass journalism, political theory, Zionism, and translation, as well as literary program and practice. With the collapse of German-liberal cultural and political power in the late-nineteenth-century Habsburg Empire, Prague's bourgeois Jews found themselves squeezed between a growing Czech national movement on the one hand and a racial rather than cultural conception of Germanness on the other. Displaced from the central social and cultural position they had come to occupy, the members of the “postliberal” Kafka generation were dazzlingly productive and original, far out of proportion to their numbers. Seeking a relationship between ideological crisis and cultural innovation, the author observes the emergence of new forms of territoriality. He identifies three fundamental areas of cultural inventiveness: Expressionism, a revolt against all limits and boundaries; a spiritual form of Zionism incorporating a novel approach to Jewish identity; and a sort of cultural no-man's-land in which translation and mediation took the place of “territory.” The investigation of these areas shows that the intensely particular, idiosyncratic experience of German-speaking Jews in Prague allows access to much broader and more general conditions of modernity.
Gábor Bátonyi
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207481
- eISBN:
- 9780191677687
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207481.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
By November 1918, the experts of the Political Intelligence Department (PID) were in agreement that the Czechs were likely to be a great asset ...
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By November 1918, the experts of the Political Intelligence Department (PID) were in agreement that the Czechs were likely to be a great asset in Central and Eastern Europe. Four months later, the spread of Bolshevism in Central Europe highlighted the strategical importance of the Bohemian mountain bastion. However, the leaders of the PID were alarmed by the apparent conflicts between the British representatives and the Czechoslovak government. The atmosphere in early 1920 was not conducive to British overtures in Prague. Anglo–Czechoslovak relations dramatically improved after Sir George Clerk moved into Thun Palace. He quickly became an intimate friend of President Masaryk. Throughout his seven years in Prague, Sir George regarded Czechoslovakia as the ‘lynchpin of Central Europe’, Britain’s best bridge to Russia, and the best justification of the Peace Conference.Less
By November 1918, the experts of the Political Intelligence Department (PID) were in agreement that the Czechs were likely to be a great asset in Central and Eastern Europe. Four months later, the spread of Bolshevism in Central Europe highlighted the strategical importance of the Bohemian mountain bastion. However, the leaders of the PID were alarmed by the apparent conflicts between the British representatives and the Czechoslovak government. The atmosphere in early 1920 was not conducive to British overtures in Prague. Anglo–Czechoslovak relations dramatically improved after Sir George Clerk moved into Thun Palace. He quickly became an intimate friend of President Masaryk. Throughout his seven years in Prague, Sir George regarded Czechoslovakia as the ‘lynchpin of Central Europe’, Britain’s best bridge to Russia, and the best justification of the Peace Conference.
