Rudolf Kayser (* 28 November 1889 in Parchim; † 5 February 1964 in New York City) was a German

literary historian The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment, enlightenment, or instruction to the reader/listener/observer, as well as the development of the literary techniques ...

. Rudolf Kayser studied literature and received his doctorate with a thesis on Arnim and Brentano. As a young lecturer at the Berlin Lessing University he made his debut in 1918 with the essay ''The Intellectuals and the Spiritual''. In 1919 he became editor for the publisher S. Fischer in Berlin, and from 1922 to 1933 he was senior editor of the

Neue Rundschau The ''Neue Rundschau'', formerly ''Die neue Rundschau'' (), founded in 1890, is a quarterly German literary magazine that appears in the S. Fischer Verlag. With its over 100 years of continuous history, it is one of the oldest cultural publicati ...

. Erwin Piscator brought Kayser to the

Volksbühne Berlin The Volksbühne ("People's Theatre") is a theater in Berlin. Located in Berlin's city center Mitte on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (Rosa Luxemburg Square) in what was the GDR's capital. It has been called Berlin's most iconic theatre. About The Vo ...

as dramaturgical advisor in the mid-1920s . In 1930 Kayser wrote a biography of his father-in-law, Albert Einstein, under the pseudonym "Anton Reiser". Rudolf Kayser was married to Ilse (1897–1934), the stepdaughter of Albert Einstein. In 1935 he emigrated to New York and became professor of German and European literature at Brandeis University. In 1936, he married Eva Urgiss, daughter of German screenwriter and film critic Julius Urgiß. His estate is kept in the Israel National Library.

Literature

* Renate Heuer (Hrsg.): ''Lexikon deutsch-jüdischer Autoren / Archiv Bibliographia Judaica.'' Band 13: ''Jaco – Kerr.'' K. G. Saur, München u. a. 2005, , S. 323–332. * Wolfgang Kaelcke: ''Parchimer Persönlichkeiten.'' Teil 2, (= ''Schriftenreihe des Museums der Stadt Parchim.'' Heft 5). Museum der Stadt, Parchim 1997, .

References

External links

*
A Late Expressionist-Literary Critic-Literary Scholar: The Estate of Rudolf Kayser
at the National Library of Israel {{DEFAULTSORT:Kayser, Rudolf 1889 births 1964 deaths People from Parchim People from the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin German literary historians German biographers German editors German male non-fiction writers Brandeis University faculty