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.