Znamię żydowskości i nowoczesność. Biograficzno-ideowe uwikłania Tuwima, Döblina i Tucholsky'ego. Folia Litteraria Polonica (26) 4/2014, 71–100.

The Jewish Stigma and Modernity: Biography and Work of Tuwim, Döblin and Tucholsky The paper deals with biographical, ideological and artistic links between Julian Tuwim, Alfred Döblin and Kurt Tucholsky. One one hand, the basis of comparison are biographical similarities, to name only the Jewish origin of those three writers, their family dramas, the experience of politically opressive school, the trauma of revolution or war, and the exile. On the other hand, the article demonstrates the ways the modernity has influenced the attitudes and texts of Döblin, Tucholsky and Tuwim. While talking about modernity, the author focuses on such phenomena as secularisation and urbanisation processes, mass political movements, and new cultural challenges. Tuwim, Döblin and Tucholsky were born into assimilated Jewish families. Their look at the stereotypical Jews (the Orthodox Jews as well as Jewish banquers or manufacturers) is marked with antipathy, or even contempt. The writers’ ambivalence towards the diapora and towards their own origin illustrate „Jewish self-hatred“, however, all three authors change their opinion on Jewry in face of the growing anti-Semitic and Nazi danger, and especially in face of the Holocaust. Döblin is proud of being Jewish after his visit to Poland in 1924, Tucholsky warns German Jews against the consequences of their passivitivy, and Tuwim publishes in 1944 his agitating manifesto We, Polish Jews. Last but not least, the analysed authors go into exile because of their Jewish ancestry and socio-cultural activities. Therefore it is no coincidence that associations with Heinrich Heine occur at that time: one may justifiably interpret his biography as prefiguration of a Jewish artist’s biography. Furthermore, Tuwim, Döblin and Tucholsky are notably sensitive to social questions, and their responsivity results to some extent from their difficult childhood and youth. Especially significant seem in that respect interparental conflicts and the moving to a strange city, since such experiences increase the feeling of loneliness and the vulnerability to depression. Nevertheless, Döblin, Tucholsky and Tuwim come with impetus into the cultural life of Germany and Poland and work in the areas of literature, cabaret (satire) as well as the press. They share sympathy for the political left and wariness of the orthodox communism. They are simultaneously advocates and ardent critics of great cities. They notice new phenomena (the popularity of cars, the role of the press, the new morality) and react to them. Their aim is a culture which appeals to the masses and educates them in a non-intrusive way., however, the awareness of their own intellectual superiority imposes distance towards lower social groups. The distance stems, firstly, from the universal ambivalence artists feel towards the masses, and secondly, from the ideological moderation characteristic of petit bourgoisie and of the political centre, in general, for Döblin, Tucholsky and Tuwim are idealists who hope for a humanitarian world impossible in the era of extrem political violence ending in the Holocaust