Ernst Lissauer

Born in Berlin to an assimilated bourgeois family that cofounded the de-Hebraicized Berlin Reform community, Ernst Lissauer was educated in Prussian schools. After attending the University of Leipzig, he worked as a freelance writer in Munich and, in 1912, argued in Moritz Goldstein’s Kunstwart debate that all German Jews must emigrate or fully assimilate. In September 1914, Lissauer wrote his famous “Haßgesang gegen England” (Hymn of Hate against England), which became a war anthem for the German Empire. In 1924, Lissauer moved to Vienna, where he continued to write poetry and plays. He was awarded the German Order of the Red Eagle (1915).