Jewish Identity in the Prose of Ludwig Winder

The aim of this thesis is an interpretation of three prose works of a Prague Jewish German Author, Ludwig Winder (1889 - 1946). The introduction describes cultural and social milieu of the Jewish community in the beginning of the 20th century in Bohemia and Moravia.The Jewish identity was determined by three general factors: The assimilation of Jewish inhabitants arising from Enlightenments, anti-Semitism and birth of Zionism. The position of Czech Jewry was even more complicated due to the background of the society at the time, including Conflicts between Czechs and Germans in the multinational Monarchy and later on also in Czechoslovakia. Ludwig Winder deals with this subject in his book, 'Die Geschichte meines Vaters' (1946, published 2000). His novel, 'Die jüdische Orgel' (1922), talks about the specific discrepancies between the orthodox Jewish milieu of a small Moravian village and also a modern city at the turn of the 20th century. The novel points out a fight between the father and his son and the influence of rigid religious upbringings in relation of the protagonist to Judaism. In the short story 'Hugo. Tragödie eines Knaben' (1924), the work describes a lonely Jewish child, who no longer lives in his Jewish community, but in a secular society and outlines his upbringing and life...