“daß ich ja nicht im entferntesten daran gedacht habe, irgendeine Frage lösen zu wollen”: The Development of Arthur Schnitzler’s Position on the “Jewish Question” from Der Weg ins Freie to Professor Bernhardi

Abstract

Schnitzler’s sense of Jewish identity has been assumed to be a more or less static construct; drawing on unpublished autobiographical material, this article argues that his position moved fluidly from a more cautious, observational viewpoint in Der Weg ins Freie (1908) to a more decisive position in Professor Bernhardi (1912). This perspective complements the more differentiated understanding of Jewish identity in Vienna in recent scholarship, which has come to see it as a flexible concept based on continual mutual exchange between Jews and non-Jews. One can summarize Schnitzler’s position as enlightened apolitical individualism. Enlightened, because he rejected religious orthodoxy as well as conversion to Catholicism; apolitical, because Schnitzler was profoundly skeptical of politics and never let himself be harnessed by a particular party or movement; and individualistic, because Schnitzler stayed true to his personal convictions, irrespective of the anti-Semitic clamor of his opponents.