Döblin and Judaism

Summary

The relationship between Alfred Döblin and Judaism was the subject of vehement controversies during the 1930s and 1940s. These became even more intractable after Döblin's November 1941 conversion to Catholicism became public, a step that many people perceived as a betrayal. The Israeli author Schalom Ben-Chorin, who had emigrated from Munich, for example, signaled his disapproval in 1949 in a newspaper article entitled “Abschied von Alfred Döblin” (Farewell to Alfred Döblin). In contrast, in 1978 Erich Gottgetreu published in the “Mitteilungsblatt” for German-speaking immigrants in Israel an appreciation of Döblin in honor of the centennial of his birth under the title “Auch er trug die Fackel” (He too carried the torch); Gottgetreu endeavored in the article to understand Döblin's position.

Also in 1978, Rowohlt published the largely untenable Döblin monograph by Klaus Schröter, which put forth the assertion that Döblin had been, at least for some time, a racist and even an anti-Semite. This slander, which Winfried Georg Sebald took over unexamined in his book Der Mythus der Zerstörung im Werk Döblins, is based on falsified citations and other manipulations that I exposed and refuted point for point in 1984. Nevertheless, neither Schröter nor Sebald felt the need thereafter to retract their statements with the appropriate expression of regret. Their negative assessment was based on the accusation that Döblin was a renegade, by which however they did not mean from Judaism but from socialism.

Now as ever it is well to subject these distortions to a sober assessment of the facts. Much pertinent research on the topic exists. The essay by Louis Huguet, “Alfred Doblin et le judaïsme” (1976), is highly informative but unfortunately not easily accessible. The excellent catalogue Alfred Döblin 1878–1978, compiled by Jochen Meyer in collaboration with Ute Doster for the special exhibition of the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach in 1978, contains a very informative chapter, “‘Zion und Europa.’ Alfred Döblins Verhältnis zum Judentum” (357– 75). Klara Pomeranz Carmely's approach in the chapter on Döblin in her book Das Identitätsproblem jüdischer Autoren im deutschen Sprachraum (1981) is one of paraphrase rather than analysis. Hans-Peter Bayerdörfer focused on Jewish narrative motifs and modes in his article in the collection Im Zeichen Hiobs (1985). In 1995, the volume Schriften zu jüdischen Fragen (SjF) appeared within the Döblin edition of the Walter Publishing House, with an extensive commentary and a highly competent afterword by Hans Otto Horch.