WASSERMANN, JAKOB. - Writer, born at Fürth on 10 March 1873 into a Jewish family, died at Altaussee (Styria) on 1 Jan. 1934.
He began his career as a writer early, abandoning that of merchant for which he had been destined. His first novel of broader scope, Die Juden von Zirndorf (1897), contrasts the false prophet with the type of the new prophet awaited by the Jewish people; the subsequent Geschichte der jungen Renate Fuchs (1900) presents the type of the new Jewish woman and constitutes the second part of that novel. This was followed by Maloch (1903); Der nie geküßte Mund; Alexander in Babylon (1905), and a collection of short stories, Die Schwestern (1906). Then came, after a brief interval, the more mature and extensive series of novels, developed against the background of the scientific psychologism then in vogue: Caspar Hauser (1908); Die Masken Ewin Reimers (1910); Das Günsemäuschen (1915); Christian Wahnschaffe (1919); Der Aufruhr um den Junker Ernst (1926); Der Fall Mauritius (1928); Etzel Andergast (1931). Joseph Kerkhovens dritte Existenz and Tagebuch aus dem Winkel appeared posthumously.
The fundamental characteristic of W.'s art consists in a technique of extremely precise, almost mechanical skill, by which he is able to develop plots crowded with episodes and characters that, rather than constructing, fragment the great story of the human comedy. Far from all moralism or religious demands, W. nevertheless pursues an ideal of humanity, a myth, a messianic dream, which enables him to raise his art to a nobly spiritual plane.