Hotel patriots or permanent strangers? Joseph Roth and the Jews of inter-war Central Europe

Abstract

This article examines the connection between cosmopolitanism and the Jews by taking a close look at the intricacies that made up the life world and thought of one of the most celebrated Jewish ‘cosmopolitans’ of the twentieth century, Galician-born journalist and author Joseph Roth (1894–1939). By approaching the question of non-belonging versus being at home everywhere – the two extremes of a cosmopolitan life – from a micro-historical, biographical perspective, this article investigates the darker side of Jewish existence in the decidedly ambiguous and increasingly threatening political climate of inter-war Europe. It traces the unravelling cosmopolitan dream of a single individual as he finds himself engulfed by the political and social narrowing of the European Jewish life worlds. In this process, the significance of a Jewish past or heritage is examined as one of the factors that fuels and complements, as well as contradicts, the cosmopolitan worldview.

Keywords:

• Central Europe
• Joseph Roth
• nomadism
• exile
• journalism
• non-belonging

Notes

1. Roth, A Life in Letters, 131 (26 January 1929). All quotations are from this edition.

2. According to Dutch art historian Frans Hannema, who knew Roth in Paris, Roth lived in a constant state of “geistige Hochspannung.” Collection Joseph Roth/David Bronsen, Interview Bronsen–Frans Hannema, on 27 October 1960, 1: JR/DB 10/94/19.2/13. Dokumentationsstelle für neuere österreichische Literatur, Vienna.

3. Roth, The Antichrist. Originally published as Der Antichrist in 1934.

4. A Life in Letters, 530–1 (21 January 1939).

5. Frank, Double Exile.

6. For the emigration of Hungarian intellectuals, see Congdon, Exile and Social Thought.

7. Böhler, Borodziej, and von Puttkamer, Legacies of Violence, 2.

8. Ablovatski, “The 1919 Central European Revolutions and the Judeo-Bolshevik Myth.”

9. Faber, “The Privilege of Pain.”

10. See, for instance, Kaplan, Questions of Travel; and Evelein, Exiles Traveling.

11. Judt, The Memory Chalet.

12. For a history of Brody, see Kuzmany, Brody.

13. See also Hughes, Facing Modernity; and Tonkin, Joseph Roth’s March into History.

14. Déak, Weimar Germany’s Left-Wing Intellectuals, 18.

15. Hacohen, “Dilemmas of Cosmopolitanism,” 106, 139.

16. As Deák argued: “‘Homelessness’ might become an advantage if it allowed the individual the freedom of unemotional and uncommitted observation. But these intellectuals were neither unemotional nor uncommitted; nor were they allowed to be impartial observers. On the contrary, they were urged to alternately identify themselves as Jews and as Germans – being alternately chided, when they tried, for clannishness or for ‘infiltration’.” Déak, Weimar Germany’s Left-Wing Intellectuals, 25–6.

17. A Life in Letters, 421 (1 September 1935).

18. This translation (by the author) is from the German edition of Roth’s correspondence. See Kesten, Joseph Roth: Briefe 1911–1939, 353. For Hofmann’s translation (who rendered the original “Unglück” as “unhappiness”), see A Life in Letters, 348 (13 July 1934).

19. This is the main premise of my study Roth, The Grace of Misery.

20. See also Snick, Hotelmens: Reportages and Brieven – Joseph Roth.

21. Roth, The Wandering Jews. Originally published as Juden auf Wanderschaft in 1927.

22. A Life in Letters, 38–39 (16 May 1025).

23. Ibid., 44 (25 July 1925).

24. Penslar, Jews and the Military, 154.

25. A Life in Letters, 47 (22 August 1925).

26. Ibid., 39 (16 May 1925).

27. Pariser Tagblatt, 6 July 1934.

28. A Life in Letters, 46 (18 August 1925). Roth did travel to Germany a few more times prior to January 1933, but it was always to his greatest chagrin.

29. Ibid., 67, 71 (undated, and 11 February 1926). Other writers who belonged to this group were Bertold Brecht, Kurt Tucholsky, and Egon Erwin Kisch.

30. Hacohen, “Kosmopoliten in einer ethnonationalen Zeit?”

31. A Life in Letters, 133 (27 February 1929).

32. Ibid., 55 (30 August 1925). And in 1928: “It’s my only home soil, and must do for me as fatherland and exchequer” (111, 8 January 1928).

33. Ibid., 107 (27 December 1927).

34. Ibid., 105 (21 December 1927).

35. Ibid., 124 (30 July 1928).

36. Ibid., 150 (10 June 1930). This is a fragment of the famous letter to publisher Gustav Kiepenheuer on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday. Michael Hofmann commented that “the one big falsehood of this letter is made up of what are actually lots of tiny truths” (154).

37. Ibid., 527 (10 October 1938).

38. Ibid., 133 (27 February 1929). As mentioned, this is not entirely the case. During the early 1920s, Roth lived for six months in an apartment in Berlin with his wife Friederike.

39. David Grossman, in an interview with Dutch journalist Gideon Levi for the documentary series Israel, Tussen Droom en Werkelijkheid (2009).

40. A Life in Letters, 429 (12 November 1935).

41. “Er war so verletzbar, daß er sich auch mit gegenüber einer Maske bedienen mußte.” Irmgard Keun, quoted from Bronsen, Joseph Roth, 476. Translation by the author.

42. Boym, The Future of Nostalgia, xiii.

43. Lazaroms, “Borderlands: Joseph Roth’s Dystopian Imagination,” 220, 236.

44. Butler, “Who Owns Kafka?”

45. A Life in Letters, 115–116 (24 January 1928).