Jakob Wassermann

Born Mar. 10, 1873, in Fürth, Bavaria; died Jan. 1, 1934, in Alt-Aussee, Austria. German writer. Born into a bourgeois Jewish family.

Wassermann was the author of the novels The Jews of Zirndorf (1897; Russian translation, 1909), Story of the Young Renata Fuchs (1900; Russian translation, 1908), Caspar Hauser (1908; Russian translation, 1926), The Goose Man (1915; Russian translation, 1925), Christian Wahnschaffe (1919), and others in which social and ethical themes are combined. In the trilogy from the life of German youth—the novels The Maurizius Case (1928; Russian translation, 1929), Etzel Andergast (1931), and Kerkhoven’s Third Existence (1934)—the dissolution of the bourgeois family and the inhuman character of bourgeois relations are portrayed; however, Wassermann did not go beyond the ideals of bogoiskateVstvo (god-seeking). He wrote the satirical play Comedy of Lies (1898) and the book Pilgrim’s Spirit (1923; Russian translation—excerpts under the title Kakhamarka s Gold—1956).