KAHANE, ARTHUR

KAHANE, ARTHUR (1872–1932), German author and editor. Kahane, who was born and educated in Vienna, became literary adviser to the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, under the direction of max reinhardt , in 1905. He also edited the theater's journal, Blaetter des deutschen Theaters (later combined with Das junge Deutschland). Kahane's novels and essays reveal an extremely individualistic philosophy. In his two lyrical works, Clemens und seine Maedchen (1918) and Willkommen und Abschied (1919), he contrasts the modern age of materialism and brutality with an earlier era of love and tenderness. In Das Judenbuch (1931) Kahane declared: "I love the Jews and my own Jewish character"; but he believed that the Jews were destined to be restless forever. "Ahasver" (i.e., the wandering jew ), he contended, "will always remain the true symbol of our immortal people." Other works by Kahane deal with   his experiences in the theater. He left the Jewish community when he was 19 years old. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: T. Betz, in: W. Killy (ed.), Literatur Lexikon, 6 (1990), 186–87. (Rudolf Kayser)