LUBLINSKI, SAMUEL

LUBLINSKI, SAMUEL (1868–1910), German playwright, literary historian, and philosopher of religion. Born in Johannisburg, East Prussia, Lublinski began work as an apprentice bookseller in Italy. He then started to write for various German journals and eventually devoted himself entirely to literature. His work took him to Berlin, Dresden, and finally to Weimar. Lublinski was at first influenced by Ibsen and the dominant naturalistic movement but he soon veered to the   neoclassical theories and techniques of Paul Ernst. His plays on historical and mythological themes include Der Imperator (1901), Hannibal (1902), Elisabeth und Essex (1903), Peter von Russland (1906), and Kaiser und Kanzler (1910). He was best known, however, for his critical insight into literary trends and for his work as a philosopher of religion. Lublinski's views on naturalism and impressionism and his sociological approach to the study of literature appear clearly in Literatur und Gesellschaft im neunzehnten Jahrhundert (4 vols., 1899–1900), Die Bilanz der Moderne (1904), and Der Ausgang der Moderne (1909). His Jewish loyalties are evident in the essay Juedische Charaktere bei Grillparzer, Hebbel, und Otto Ludwig (1899), and in two somewhat unscientific religious works, Die Entstehung des Judentums (1902) and Der urchristliche Erdkreis und sein Mythos (2 vols., 1910). Lublinski was one of the earliest Zionists in Berlin. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: T. Lessing, Philosophie als Tat (1914), 343–52; A. Soergel, Dichtung und Dichter der Zeit, 2 (1925), 140–3. Add. Bibliography: P. Sprengel, "Urszene im Café Luipold – Theodor Lessings Satire auf Samuel Lublinski und die juedische Kontroverse um Assimilation und Zionismus," in: Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, 42:3 (1992), 341–49; R. Heuer, "Zionister Traum und juedische Realität – Samuel Lublinskis Philosemitismus," in: R. Heuer et al. (ed.), Antisemitismus – Zionismus – Antizionismus (1997), 150–68; A. Woehrmann, Das Programm der Neuklassik – Die Konzeption der modernen Tragoedie bei Paul Ernst Wilhelm von Scholz und Samuel Lublinski (1979). (Sol Liptzin)