Golem

Gustav Meyrink

Gustav Meyrink (1868-1932) was a German writer whose literary work was greatly influenced by his formative stay in Prague. He was born in Vienna as the illegitimate son of a Württemberg minister and the Bavarian court actress Maria Meyer. From 1884 he lived in Prague, where, after his studies, he opened a banking house with the money his father had given him when he came of age. Already as a banker, he met with the young generation of Prague German artists - Neo-Romantics: They were united, among other things, by their love for old Prague. The city was being modernised and as a result of the redevelopment, mysterious places and corners where colourful street life was intertwined with myths and legends were irreversibly disappearing. In 1891 Merink co-founded and presided over the Blue Star Lodge, branch of the Theosophical Society, whose members included Julius Zeyer, poet, writer and translator Emanuel Lešehrad and Karel Weinfurter, a prominent representative of the Czech mystical school. At that time Meyrink gained knowledge of parapsychology and occultism, as well as the history of secret societies, orders and societies. He made the most of all this when writing his first and still best known novel Der Golem (1915), which was written after Meyrink's forced departure from Prague in 1903. The ancient legend of the Golem has become an integral part of the image of mystical Prague thanks to his immortal novel.