GUTZKOW, KARL FERDINAND°

GUTZKOW, KARL FERDINAND ° (1811–1878), German nationalist author. Gutzkow, born in Berlin, was a prominent figure in the "Young Germany" literary movement where he led the reactionary wing, in contrast to the liberal trend influenced by Rahel Varnhagen von *Ense, *Heine, and *Boerne. Like *Goethe, Schlegel, and Brentano, Gutzkow expanded the theme of the *Wandering Jew in German literature, as for instance in his "Julius Moses Ahasver" (in: Vermischte Schriften, 2, 1842). His books, such as Wally, die Zweiflerin (1835), Zopf und Schwert (1844), and Urbild des Tartueff (1844) brought him fame but criticism as well. Gutzkow also wrote a historical drama, Uriel Acosta (1846), in which the author's own emotional experiences and inner conflicts are echoed. Gutzkow had already treated this story in a tale, Der Sadduzaeer von Amsterdam (1833). Discrepancies between the drama and Acosta's actual life roused protests from H. *Jellinek and induced him to write a monograph on Spinoza's forerunner, Uriel Acosta's Leben und Lehre (1847).

See also Image of the Jew in *German Literature.

bibliography:

L. Poliakov, Histoire de l'antisémitisme, 3 (1968), index; G. Brandes, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, 6 (1923), index, J.G. Robertson, A History of German Literature (1959), index; V. Eichstaedt, Bibliographie zur Geschichte der Judenfrage (1938), index. add. bibliography: H. Steinecke, "Gutzkow, die Juden und das Judentum," in: Conditio Judaica, ii (1989), 118–29; J.S. Skolnik, "Writing Jewish History between Gutzkow and Goethe; Auerbach's 'Spinoza' and the Birth of Modern Jewish Historical Fiction," in: Prooftexts, 19, 2 (1999), 101–25; T.C. Kinney, Challenging the Myth of "Young Germany" – Conflict and Consensus in Karl Gutzkow, Heinrich Laube, Theodor Mundt and Ludolf Weinbarg (1997).