Ludwig Winder

Ludwig Winder was born in 1889 in Šafov in Moravia, Austria-Hungary, the son of a Jewish family, but grew up in nearby Holešov, where he was brought up in a strictly religious atmosphere.

After moving to Vienna in 1907 he worked for the liberal newspaper Die Zeit after completing his matriculation examination before joining the editorial staff of the nationalist Deutsche Zeitung Bohemia in Prague.

In 1917 Winder published his first novel, Die rasende Rotationsmaschine which examined the difficulties faced by Jews from religious eastern communities in integrating themselves into modern western society.

His semi-autobiographical novels Die juedische Orgel (1922) and Hugo: Tragoedie eines Knaben (1924) concern the battle of young eastern Jews for a secular existence.

The story of the Jew Albert, who grows up in the Jewish ghetto of a small town in Moravia takes up the classical themes of romanticism such as the fight against the father and self-realization through detachment from the family.