50. Figures from Roland Reuß’s afterword to Brod, Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott, 319–320; and Kayser and Gronemeyer, Max Brod, 67. The best English-language secondary source on the novel is Fenves, “Kafka-Werfel-Einstein Effect.”
51. Max Brod to Kurt Wolff, 22 February 1916, in Wolff, Briefwechsel eines Verlegers, 179–180. Emphasis in original.
52. Max Brod to Kurt Wolff, 10 July 1916, in Wolff, Briefwechsel eines Verlegers, 181.
53. Max Brod, “Umgang mit Verlegern [1968],” in Brod, Über die Schönheit häßlicher Bilder, 353.
54. Hugo Bergmann, “Max Brods neuer Roman,” Der Jude 1/2 (May 1916): 134–136, on 135.
55. Felix Weltsch, “Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott,” Die Schaubühne 13, no. 1 (1917): 474–478, on 478. Decades later, Weltsch returned to this point about mirror characters, extending it to both Rëubeni and Galilei: Weltsch, “Aus Zweiheit zur Einheit: Max Brods Weg als Dichter und Denker,” in Taussig, Ein Kampf um Wahrheit, 8–17.
56. Otto Pick, “Ein Weg zu Gott,” Die Neue Rundschau 27 (1918): 862–864, on 864.
57. Hoffmann, “Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott,” 332; Rudolf Fuchs, “Literarische Neuerscheinungen,” Die Aktion 6 (1916): 656–657; Elise Bergmann, Review of Max Brod’s Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott, Preußische Jahrbücher 166 (1916): 302–304; Karl Münzer, Review of Max Brod’s Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott, Das literarische Echo 18 (1915/1916): 765–766; Max Herrmann, Review of Brod’s Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott, Zeit-Echo 2, no. 8 (May 1916): 125–126; A. Blau, “Max Brod’s Roman ‘Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott,’ ” Jeschurun 3 (1916): 210–217; Kurt Pinthus, Review of Max Brod’s Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott, Zeitschrift für Bücherfreunde 8, no. 2 (December 1916): 458–459; Ella Seligmann, Review of Max Brod’s Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott, Liberales Judentum 8 (1916): 96. A common theme of these reviews was their comparison of the book with Gustav Meyrink’s Der Golem, which came out a year before Tycho, with some reviewing the two works alongside each other: see, for example, Hans Schorn, “Geschichtliche Romane und Erzählungen,” Die schöne Literatur 18 (6 January 1917): 6.
58. J. d’Ouckh, “Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott: Ein Roman von Max Brod,” Das Reich 1 (1916/1917): 299–300.
59. Wolfgang Schumann, “Geschichtliche Romane,” Deutscher Wille des Kunstwarts 29, no. 4 (1915/1916): 231–236, on 234.
60. Brod quoted in Wenig, “O knize a autorovi,” in Brod, Tychona Brahe cesta k Bohu, tr. Adolf Wenig (Prague: F. Topič, [1917]), 6.
61. Max Brod quoted in ibid., 7.
62. Brod quoted in ibid., 7.
63. K. M., Review of Brod’s Tychona Brahe cesta k Bohu, Zvon 18 (1918): 264–265, on 265. On Hájek/Hagecius’s scientific accomplishments, see the brief discussions in Dreyer, Tycho Brahe, 83; Evans, Rudolf II and His World, 152; Luboš Nový, ed., Dějiny exaktních věd v českých zemích do konce 19. století (Prague: Nakl. ČSAV, 1961), 39.
64. K. M., Review of Brod’s Tychona Brahe cesta k Bohu, 265.
65. Quido Vetter, “Čestí hvězdáři v Brodově knize ‘Tychona Brahe cesta k Bohu,’ ” Nová síla 21 (2 October 1920): 2.
66. František Xaver Šalda, “Židovský román staropražský,” in Šalda, Kritické projevy X: 1917–1918 (Prague: Československý spisovatel, 1957), 284–287, on 286. Emphasis in original. For another review that juxtaposed Brod and Meyrink, see Antonín Veselý, “Dva německé romány,” Česká revue (1916–1917): 359–366.
67. K., “Dva německé romány ze staré Prahy,” Právo lidu 25, no. 58 (27 February 1916): 2.
68. Šalda, “Židovský roman staropražský,” 287.
69. F. Marek, “Knihy přeložené,” Cesta 1 (1919): 48.
70. Paul Adler, “Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott,” Die Rheinlande 26 (1916): 376.
71. For details on the conflict, see Donald G. Daviau, “Max Brod and Karl Kraus,” in Margarita Pazi, ed., Max Brod 1884–1984: Untersuchungen zu Max Brods literarischen und philosophischen Schriften (New York: Peter Lang, 1987), 207–231.
72. Karl Kraus, “Selbstanzeige,” Die Fackel 13, nos. 326/327/328 (8 July 1911): 34–36, on 35–36.
73. Max Brod to Richard Dehmel, 21 December 1913, in Kayser and Gronemeyer, Max Brod, 29.
74. Ibid., 29. On the Jewish dimensions of the antagonism, see also Pazi, Max Brod, 16.
75. Max Brod to Richard Dehmel, 27 December 1913, in Kayser and Gronemeyer, Max Brod, 30. Emphasis in original.
76. Karl Kraus to Kurt Wolff, 9 December 1913, in Wolff, Briefwechsel eines Verlegers, 123.
77. Max Brod, Diesseits und Jenseits, 2 vols. (Winterthur: Mondial, 1947), 1:331. See also 1:49.
78. Kurt Krolop, “Prager Autoren im Lichte der ‘Fackel,’ ” in Prager deutschsprachige Literatur zur Zeit Kafkas (Vienna: Braumüller, 1989), 92–117.
79. Max Brod, “Wie ich Franz Werfel entdeckte,” Prager Montagsblatt 60, no. 52 (27 December 1937): 58.
80. Anselm Ruest, “Der Max Brod-Abend,” Die Aktion 1, no. 45 (12 December 1911): 1425–1426. For a contemporary description of the sensation Werfel’s verses made in Prague, see Otto Pick, “Erinnerungen an den Winter 1911/12,” Die Aktion 6 (1916): 605.
81. Michel Reffet, “Pro Werfel contra Kraus: Eine alte Polemik aus neuer Sicht,” in Klaas-Hinrich Ehlers, Steffen Höhne, Václav Maidl, and Marek Nekula, eds., Brücken nach Prag: Deutschsprachige Literatur im kulturellen Kontext der Donaumonarchie und der Tschechoslowakei (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2000), 201–219; Josef Čermák, “Junge Jahre in Prag: Ein Beitrag zum Freundeskreis Franz Werfels,” in Ehlers et al., Brücken nach Prag, 125–162.
82. Frank Field, The Last Days of Mankind: Karl Kraus and His Vienna (London: Macmillan, 1967), 128–129.
83. Brod, Streitbares Leben, 13.
84. Idem, “Wie ich Franz Werfel entdeckte,” 58.
85. Adler, “Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott,” 376.
86. Brod, Streitbares Leben, 203.
87. “Meinem Freunde Franz Kafka.” Brod, Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott, 15.
88. Idem, Franz Kafka, 131.
89. Franz Kafka to Max Brod, 6 February 1914, in Max Brod and Franz Kafka, Eine Freundschaft, 2 vols. (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1989), 2:137.
90. Franz Kafka to Felice Bauer, 20 April 1914, in Franz Kafka, Briefe an Felice: und andere Korrespondenz aus der Verlobungszeit, ed. Erich Heller and Jürgen Born (New York: Schocken, 1967), 559.
91. See Vivian Liska, “Neighbors, Foes, and Other Communities: Kafka and Zionism,” Yale Journal of Criticism 13, no. 2 (Fall 2000): 343–360, on 349.
92. Franz Kafka to Felice Bauer, [5 December 1915], in Kafka, Briefe an Felice, 645.
93. Ritchie Robertson, “The Creative Dialogue Between Brod and Kafka,” in Mark H. Gelber, ed., Kafka, Zionism, and Beyond (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2004), 283–296, on 289.
94. Brod, Streitbares Leben, 171.
95. Ibid., 201–202.
96. Ibid., 202.
97. Peter Stephan Jungk, Franz Werfel: A Life in Prague, Vienna, and Hollywood, tr. Anselm Hollo (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990 [1987]), 154–155.
98. Brod to Einstein, 30 November 1938, AEA 34–063.
99. Ibid.
100. Max Brod, Franz Kafka als wegweisende Gestalt (St. Gallen: Tschudy-Verlag, [1957]), 48.
101. Ibid., 47.
102. Brod to Einstein, 28 June 1940, AEA 34–064.
103. Gassmann, Lieber Vater, Lieber Gott?, 43.
104. Brod, Diesseits und Jenseits, 1:175. For references to Frank, see 1:125, 137, 162, 186, 198, 219; 2:30.
105. That said, there are a number of references in the novel to Kepler and Tycho (Max Brod, Galilei in Gefangenschaft [Winterthur: Mondial, 1948], 65, 76, 87–88, 249, 572), the Bohemian defeat at White Mountain (212–213), and Jan Hus (342, 763), and one of the characters—Simon Delmedigo—travels to and from Prague (280, 776). Outside of Rome, Prague is probably the most frequently invoked city in the novel.
106. Max Brod, “Praha a já,” Literární noviny (10 December 1930): 4. Brod did return to Prague 25 years after his exile, but it was to
a very non-Germanophone city that was in the throes of a fascination with Kafka’s writings. “Max Brod v Praze po 25 letech,” Literární noviny 13, no. 28 (1964): 3.
107. On the Czechoslovak State Prize, see Jürgen Serke, Böhmische Dörfer: Wanderungen durch eine verlassene literarische Landschaft (Vienna: Paul Zsolnay, 1987), 56; Ines Koeltzsch, Geteilte Kulturen: Eine Geschichte der tschechisch-jüdisch-deutschen Beziehungen in Prag (1918–1938) (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2012), 193.
108. Brod to Einstein, 23 June 1949, AEA 34–067.
109. On the events in question, and for translations of the central documents, see Maurice A. Finnochiario, ed., The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History (Berkeley: University of California, 1989).
110. Brod, Galilei in Gefangenschaft, 686. For more information on the historical Delmedigo, see Alter, Two Renaissance Astronomers.
111. Einstein to Brod, 4 July 1949, AEA 34–068. For a contrasting, and much more flattering, interpretation, see Martin Buber’s reading of the Galileo figure in the novel in Buber, “Der Galilei Roman.”
112. Quoted in Sebastian Schirrmeister, “On Not Writing Hebrew: Max Brod and the ‘Jewish Poet of the German Tongue’ Between Prague and Tel Aviv,” Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 60 (2015): 25–42, on 39.
113. Brod to Einstein, 22 July 1949, AEA 34–069.
114. Brod to Einstein, 15 September 1949, AEA 34–070.
115. Brod to Einstein, 15 December 1951, AEA 34–073.
116. This detail is cited in lots of places, such as Peter Demetz, Prague in Black and Gold: Scenes in the Life of a European City (New York: Hill and Wang, 1997), 33.
117. Einstein, foreword to Carola Baumgardt, Johannes Kepler: Life and Letters (New York: Philosophical Library, 1951), 12–13.
118. On Kepler’s religious views, see especially Aviva Rothman, The Pursuit of Harmony: Kepler on Cosmos, Confession, and Community (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017).
119. Einstein to Maurice Solovine, 1 January 1951, in Albert Einstein, Letters to Solovine (New York: Philosophical Library, 1987), 102.
120. C. Lanczos, “The Greatness of Albert Einstein,” in Gerald E. Tauber, ed., Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity (New York: Crown, 1979), 16–26, on 18.
121. Hitler quoted in Dietrich Eckart, Der Bolschewismus von Moses bis Lenin: Zwiegespräch zwischen Adolf Hitler und mir (Munich: Hoheneichen-Verlag, 1924), 12. My thanks to Alex Csiszar in helping me obtain a copy of this work.
CHAPTER 6: OUT OF JOSEFOV
1. Martin Buber, Drei Reden über das Judentum (Frankfurt am Main: Rütten & Loening, 1911), 17.
2. See, for example, the essays in Karl Erich Grözinger, Stéphane Mosès, and Hans Dieter Zimmermann, eds., Franz Kafka und das Judentum (Frankfurt am Main: Jüdischer Verlag bei Athenäum, 1987).
3. Philipp Frank, Einstein: His Life and Times, tr. George Rosen, ed. and rev. Shuichi Kusaka (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002 [1947]), 85.
4. Albert Einstein, “Autobiographical Notes,” tr. Paul Arthur Schilpp, in Schilpp, ed., Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist, 2 vols. (New York: Harper & Row, 1951 [1949]), 1:1–95, on 3–5. For a survey of Einstein’s negative views of organized religion and a personal god, see Matthew Stanley, “Myth 21: That Einstein Believed in a Personal God,” in Ronald L. Numbers, ed., Galileo Goes to Jail: And Other Myths about Science and Religion (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 187–195.
5. In his memoirs, Einstein’s son-in-law would provide a somewhat repellent characterization of Einstein’s distance from Jewishness: “His prayer-shawl ancestors had made no introduction into his bearing, his acts, or his life. He was also entirely free from that racial element which undisputably confines Jewry—a cold, money-loving trait, which dusts her soul, and has for centuries.” Dimitri Marianoff with Palma Wayne, Einstein: An Intimate Study of a Great Man (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1944), 169.
6. On his registration in Zurich, see the editor’s commentary, “Einstein and the Jewish Question,” CPAE 7, on 222; and Albrecht Fölsing, Albert Einstein: A Biography, tr. and abridged Ewald Osers (New York: Penguin Books, 1997 [1993]), 41.
7. Ze’ev Rosenkranz, Einstein Before Israel: Zionist Icon or Iconoclast? (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011), 32–33.
8. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, 24 August [1911], CPAE 5:279, on 314. Despite his ostensible firsthand credentials, Frank claimed in his biography that Einstein “did not go through any formal ceremony,” and that his registration of himself as Jewish only amounted to changing a line on a form. Frank, Einstein: His Life and Times, 79.
9. Antonina Vallentin, The Drama of Albert Einstein, tr. Moura Budberg (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1954), 52.
10. Einstein to Ehrenfest, 25 April 1912, AEDA 9–324, Box 10, Folder “P. Ehrenfest 1911–1916.” Emphasis in original.
11. Einstein to Alfred Kleiner, 3 April 1912, CPAE 5:381, on 446.
12. Einstein to Zangger, [before 29 February 1912], CPAE 5:366, on 421.
13. Ehrenfest’s biographer speculated that the insistence might have stemmed from the conditions of his marriage as imposed by Russian authorities. Tsarist law did not permit interfaith marriage, and therefore it was essential that both Ehrenfest and Afanas’eva declare themselves to be without religion. Martin J. Klein, Paul Ehrenfest: The Making of a Theoretical Physicist (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1970), 178, 180.
14. On Orthodoxy, see Michele Zackheim, Einstein’s Daughter: The Search for Lieserl (New York: Riverhead, 1999), 68. On Lutherans, see Einstein to Mileva Einstein-Marić, Hans Albert, and Eduard, [10 April 1914], CPAE 8:3, on 14.
15. “Deposition in Divorce Proceedings,” 23 December 1918, CPAE 8:676, on 974; “Divorce Decree,” 14 February 1919, CPAE 9:6, on 8.
16. Ilse Einstein to the Protestant Synod of Berlin, 9 March 1920, CPAE 9:346, on 467.
17. Einstein to Jewish Community of Berlin, 22 December 1920, CPAE 10:238, on 534.
18. Jewish Community of Berlin to Einstein, 30 December 1920, CPAE 10:253, on 550.
19. Einstein to Jewish Community of Berlin, 5 January 1921, CPAE 12:8, on 29.
20. Einstein to Malwin Warschauer, 8 March 1921, CPAE 12:86, on 124. This was in response to Malwin Warschauer to Einstein, 2 March 1921, CPAE 12:74, on 112–113. He made fun of the claim that his membership would help Zionism in a letter to a friend: Einstein to Alfred Kerr, 7 March 1921, CPAE 12:81, on 120.
21. Thomas Levenson, Einstein in Berlin (New York: Bantam Books, 2003), 304.
22. R. K., “Einstein in Prag,” Prager Tagblatt 37, no. 144 (26 May 1912): 2.
23. Ibid., 2.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. “A. Einstein,” Montags-Revue 43, no. 31 (29 July 1912): 1–2, on 2.
27. Ibid., 1.
28. Einstein to Emil Starkenstein, 14 July 1921, CPAE 12:181, on 223.
29. The most comprehensive study of this issue is Rosenkranz, Einstein Before Israel.
30. Hillel J. Kieval, Languages of Community: The Jewish Experience in the Czech Lands (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 11; Hans Kohn, “Before 1918 in the Historic Lands,” in The Jews of Czechoslovakia: Historical Studies and Surveys, 3 vols. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1968–1984), 1:12–20; Rachel L. Greenblatt, To Tell Their Children: Jewish Communal Memory in Early Modern Prague (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014), 14.
31. Hillel J. Kieval, “Pursuing the Golem of Prague: Jewish Culture and the Invention of a Tradition,” Modern Judaism 17, no. 1 (February 1997): 1–23, on 9; idem, Languages of Community, 15, 18.
32. Idem, The Making of Czech Jewry: National Conflict and Jewish Society in Bohemia, 1870–1918 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 12.
33. On Mauscheldeutsch, see Gary B. Cohen, The Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague, 1861–1914, 2nd. rev. ed. (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2006 [1981]), 61.
34. For these figures, see Jiří Pešek, “Jüdische Stud
enten an den Prager Universitäten, 1882–1939,” in Marek Nekula, Ingrid Fleischmann, and Albrecht Greule, eds., Franz Kafka im sprachnationalen Kontext seiner Zeit: Sprache und nationale Identität in öffentlichen Institutionen der böhmischen Länder (Köln: Böhlau, 2007), 213–227, on 214; Kieval, Languages of Community, 145; and idem, Making of Czech Jewry, 57. On the earlier history of Jews at the university in Prague, see Guido Kisch, “Die Prager Universität und die Juden: Mit Beiträgen zur Geschichte des Medizinstudiums,” Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Juden in der Čechoslovakischen Republik 6 (1934): 1–144.
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