Dekadence a obrození

The discourse of an alleged 'decadence' of European culture at the end of 19th century was often connected with the idea that the cause of this decline was the growing influence of the Jews and, therefore, that a 'revival' could not be achieved without their expulsion. Using the examples of selected German-speaking Central European intellectuals of Jewish origin, the book gives an overview of the alternative collectives and projects to which Jews driven out of the German nation and German bourgeois culture resorted. The book communicates these Jewish responses to the onset of anti-Semitism and the crisis of liberalism (heralded by them) along with analyses of how the discourse of 'decadence and revival' was connected with the 'Jewish question' in the prose and essay works of Thomas Mann.