LISSAUER, ERNST

LISSAUER, ERNST (1882–1937), German poet and playwright. Born in Berlin, his earliest publications were two volumes of verse: Der Acker (1907) and Der Strom (1912). Lissauer is, however, remembered as the composer of the "Hymn of Hate" (Hassgesang gegen England, 1915), which German troops sang at the front during World War i. From 1924 he lived in Vienna and supported the German nationalists. He insisted that the Jews were not one people and that he, as a German Jew, had nothing in common with the Jews of Eastern Europe. Lissauer opposed Zionism and advocated complete assimilation. He wrote a number of plays including Yorck (1921), Das Weib des Jephta (1928), and Luther und Thomas Muenzer (1929).

bibliography:

A. Schwadron, in: Der Jude, 1 (1916–17), 490–2; G.K. Brand, Ernst Lissauer (1923); D. Sadan, Ha-Namer vi-Ydido ha-Menamnem (1951), 124–5, 129–32, 188–91. add. bibliography: H. Schlösser, "Ernst Lissauer oder die Liebe zum Organischen. Ueber einen Berliner Dichter und sein 'Glueck in Oesterreich'," in: B. Fetz and H. Schloesser (eds.), Wien – Berlin (2001), 32–44; R. Braendle, Am wilden Zeitenpass. Motive und Themen im Werk des deutsch-juedischen Dichters Ernst Lissauer, with an introduction by G. Stern (2002); E. Albanis, "German-Jewish Cultural Identity from 1900 to the Aftermath of the First World War. A Comparative Study of Moritz Goldstein, Julius Bab and Ernst Lissauer" (diss., Oxford, 2002).

[Sol Liptzin]