DIE BEWUSSTE ENTSCHEIDUNG: PARALLELE KARRIEREN - DER ARZT, ZIONIST, JOURNALIST UND KULTURKRITIKER MAX NORDAU
THE CONSCIOUS DECISION – PARALLEL CAREERS – THE DOCTOR, ZIONIST, JOURNALIST AND CULTURE CRITIC MAX NORDAU

Summary/Abstract: Max Nordau, born Simon Gabriel Südfeld (1849, Pest – 1923, Paris), active as a doctor, journalist, and essayist and also as the second most influential Zionist (after Theodor Herzl), became famous overnight at 34 years of age with his book Die conventionellen Lügen der Kulturmenschheit. One decade later he left an indelible impression on the fin de siècle mentality with his most influential work Entartung. His works have been translated into 17 languages, and Entartung (for example) went through seven editions in the brief space of four months in England. His oeuvre is significant from the perspective of literary history, since he represents one of the pioneers of modern Kulturkritik. He exerted a palpable influence on later writers, such as György Lukács. He was one of the leading intellectuals in Europe in the late nineteenth century, a thinker along the lines of Nietzsche. In this essay I offer a discussion of the less widely known origins and initial phases of the careers of this multifaceted thinker.

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