Allegorical Slumber: Somnambulism and

Salvation in Gustav Meyrinks Der Golem

ERIC KLAUS

Hobart and William Smith College

Immer mehr verlsst sich der Mensch auf die Denkdrse,
und da sie ihm nichts verrt, was mit Magie und den andern
verborgenen Krften der Seele zusammenhngt, whnt er,
dergleichen existiere berhaupt nicht oder sei gering zu
schtzen. (Meyrink, Die Verwandlung des Blutes 205)

This quote articulates a concern of Gustav Meyrink (18681932) that permeates

his thought and writing the hidden forces of the soul have lost their significance
and influence in modern times. The existence of the intangible realm, as well as
its accessibility, occupied his thoughts, his writings, and his own esoteric pursuits
throughout his adult life. In both his theoretical and fictional writings, he returns
to images and tropes that illustrate the condition of possibility for perceiving, interpreting, and integrating the forces of the spiritual self into ones material life.
A prominent trope in this project is the somnambulist: a wanderer in the region
between waking and deep sleep who can unite disparate parts of the self and thus
secure salvation by overcoming the fears and limitations of the material world.
This article will analyze somnambulism in Meyrinks novel Der Golem (1915)
through the lens of allegory.
Meyrinks frustration with the lionization of reason at the expense of the
hidden forces of the soul is not unique for his time. His are views shared by a
great many writers during the latter half of the nineteenth through the first third
of the twentieth centuries. During this period much of Europe experienced a
profound series of crises: The debates and disagreements surrounding epistemological issues in particular offers intriguing insight into this time of crisis. These
discussions were a response to questions as to how to deal with the duality of
mind and body, of material and spirit. For example, positivism and materialism,
as articulated by August Comte (17981857) and Karl Marx (18181883),
spawned methods of inquiry that promised unimpeachable answers to lifes
fundamental questions, a promise that was grounded in the repudiation of metaphysical, spiritual factors. In describing these movements, Corinna Treitel points
to Ludwig Bchner, who dismissed any attempt to pursue legitimate knowledge
via supernatural means as idle fantasy. Treitel writes that for Bchner, Clairvoyants, somnambulists, and others who claimed to know a supernatural or
transcendent reality by nonsensual means contradicted this iron law of nature
(34).
seminar 46:2 (May 2010)

132

ERIC KLAUS

The vehemence of those who banned metaphysical concerns from epistemology was met with equal force by the defiance of those who legitimized the
spiritual realm. For example, Walter Benjamin (18921940) wrote: that which
withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art
(221). For Benjamin, each aesthetic product bears a spiritual component that
becomes detached when that product is mass-produced in the modern age.
Others felt that the answers to their questions were to be found by melding
the material and the spiritual. This approach was crystallized in occultist and
esoteric movements, most prominently in theosophy, whose practitioners
included Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, Annie Besant, and
Rudolph Steiner. Founded in New York City in 1875, theosophy was open
to all people irrespective of race, colour, or creed, and it fostered the study
of comparative religions and philosophy to unearth common ground among
spiritual and intellectual traditions across the world in order to unite the material
and the mystical (Cranston 14647). Central to each of these approaches to
ascertaining truth is the inherent dualism of humanity, and this dualism is also
reflected in Meyrinks epistemology.
Throughout his adult life, Meyrink believed that fundamental truths of
existence are found in the shadows of the spiritual realm, and his pursuit
of these truths resulted in decades of occultist practices. His nonfiction, for
example in texts such as An der Grenze des Jenseits (1923) and Hochstapler
der Mystik (1927), is rich in accounts of his own experimentations with
esoteric traditions, including theosophy. He not only corresponded and met
with Besant and Steiner respectively, but also founded a theosophical lodge in
Prague in 1891. Eventually, he moved beyond the empty promises of the Theosophical Society and developed his own epistemology. Through his attempts
to acquire esoteric knowledge, he believed he had discovered the underlying
structure of the human psyche that there is a schism between the daily or
waking consciousness and the realms of spiritual experience, but that this
bifurcation can be healed through esoteric training, which aids in achieving
spiritual salvation. Salvation for Meyrink does not correspond to a Christian
notion of the souls ascendance into an other-worldly paradise, but resides in
freedom from fear and from the exigencies of material existence. This theme
dominated his fiction and as a result expresses seminal characteristics of
modernism a movement from around 1880 to the 1930s that constitutes the
aesthetic articulation of modernity.
Modernity resists an all-encompassing definition and continues to generate
attempts to circumscribe its complex structure. Broadly viewed as a series of
social and intellectual upheavals beginning in the Renaissance, several critics and
cultural theorists argue that modernity describes experiences and relationships
permeated by ambivalence: the clash of concomitant yet mutually exclusive
paradigms (Bauman 5; Berman 16; Habermas 3; Kniesche and Brockmann
712; Treitel 1719). In the works of many modernists, this intellectual and
social turbulence is often registered in the image of the somnambulist, for the

Gustav Meyrinks Der Golem 133

somnambulist embodies a condition of transition, of experience between the
known and the unknown.
Hermann Brochs trilogy, Die Schlafwandler (19311932), for example,
presents a historisch/erkenntnistheoretische Darstellung jenes vierhundertjhrigen Prozesses, der unter der Leitung des Rationalen das christlichplatonische Weltbild des mittelalterlichen Europas auflste (734). As such, his
sleepwalkers are caught in the massive flux of historical and epistemological
shifts as they manifested themselves at the turn of the twentieth century. Another
example of a sleepwalker is Cesare, the ghoulish instrument of Caligaris madness in Robert Wienes 1919 film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari. This incarnation
of the somnambulist inhabits a dark corner of modernity the danger that lurks
among the intangible and hidden powers of the mind. Meyrink, as another voice
in this choir, recognizes neither uneasiness nor perniciousness in somnambulism.
Instead, he views the somnambulistic condition as integral to mending the
inherent rift within each human being.
A colourful and controversial figure, Meyrink was often in the centre of
conflict because of his brazen and iconoclastic character (Frank; Karle; Lube;
Marzin; Mitchell; Smit). Even his position in literary history has been the subject of debate (Cersowsky; Frank; Marzin; Qasim; Schdel; Wolkan). One of
the reasons why he was so controversial was his caustic derision of those who
favoured empirical science at the expense of the occult. In numerous novellas
and short stories he satirized what he viewed to be blind faith in the promise
of science to answer all of lifes questions. In addition to his satires, he also
chronicled his own attempts to harness occultist forces, and his novels arguably
could be read as fictionalized accounts of individuals on journeys of salvation,
journeys that overcome dualism and lead to freedom and felicity. Salvation is
realized only at the end of a process of awakening to higher knowledge, and this
awakening is contingent upon escaping daily consciousness and entering a state
of awareness akin to a somnambulistic state.
Meyrink often writes about varying degrees of awareness that hinge on
the underlying dualistic structure of human experience. His nonfiction writing
concerns two levels of consciousness within each human being, or what he calls
Tagesbewutsein, or das krperliche Normalbewutsein (Frank 433), and
Unterbewute, or berbewute (Frank 240). He then argues that the division
of these levels of consciousness is the cause of much suffering and that one can
ameliorate this pain by breaking free of the Tagesbewutsein and thus bridging
these two levels of consciousness. For example, in An der Grenze des Jenseits,
he writes of a state of hyperawareness (berwachsein) achieved through yoga
and tantamount to the Nirvana of the Buddha (Frank 434). Elsewhere, he claims
that spiritual awakening and the healing of the intrapersonal divide is contingent
upon achieving a quasi-dead (Scheintod) condition (Frank 234). Each of these
states transcends the Tagesbewutsein and makes the individual aware of the
previously unknown berbewute, making unification possible. This moment
of transcending everyday awareness and coming into contact with higher states

134

ERIC KLAUS

of consciousness is translated in many ways in Meyrinks fiction. The actor

Zrcaldo in Walpurgisnacht (1918) wanders in a trance when communing with
the other side; the protagonist of Der weie Dominikaner (1921), Christopher
Taubenschlag, traverses the boundary of waking consciousness and spiritual
enlightenment in a dream; alchemy is one of the instruments Baron Mller employs in Der Engel vom westlichen Fenster (1929) to liberate his spirit from
waking consciousness. In Der Golem (1915), somnambulism is the trope most
closely associated with the condition in which the unnamed narrator, Pernath,
crosses the planes of consciousness. It is not a far leap to link his condition to
somnambulism, for in Die Verwandlung des Blutes Meyrink compares the
state of heightened awareness he achieved directly to that of the somnambulist
(Frank 216).
Der Golem is a framed narrative and begins with an unnamed protagonist
drifting off to sleep after having read a biography of the Buddha. He begins
to dream, and this dream is the bridge between the framed and embedded narratives. The dreamer is struck by the feeling of having his ego, his I, slip out
of his body and into the body of a stranger Athanasius Pernath, the protagonist
of the embedded narrative. The reader then follows Pernath as he encounters the
tempestuous personalities and negotiates the perilous day-to-day workings of the
Prague ghetto.
From this point the narrative pursues a parallel plot: a detective story and
Pernaths spiritual awakening. Pernath stands entangled in both threads, as an
unscrupulous member of the ghetto has him falsely charged with the murder of
a local watchmaker. As a result, he is arrested and subsequently, after months of
incarceration, released. These Kafkaesque events occur alongside his spiritual
journey, but these threads also intersect, for while in prison he encounters
Amadeus Laponder, a rapist/murderer who teaches Pernath how to decipher the
mystical language of the soul. This kind of interaction is not unique. During
this process of self-discovery, Pernath comes into contact with gurus, ghoulish
apparitions, and mystical texts. All of this culminates in his release from prison
and return to the ghetto only to find it abandoned. On Christmas Eve, fire breaks
out in his building, and he escapes by climbing out of his window and falls to
the pavement below, but not before witnessing visions on the way down that
bear great import to his destiny. This signals the end of the embedded narrative
and brings the reader back to the slumbering unnamed protagonist of the frame.
In contrast to the smooth transition from the frame to the beginning of Pernaths
story, the return to the frame is abrupt, with the protagonist awaking from his
dream with a start to learn that he had lived many years of Pernaths life in less
than one hour.
Upon waking, the protagonist realizes that he had taken the wrong hat at
High Mass earlier in the day the hat belonging to Athanasius Pernath. Wishing
to return the hat to its owner, he seeks out and eventually finds Pernath in the
Alchimistengasse on the Hradschin, a place of great spiritual energy that the
narrator encountered in his dream. Some seventy years after the events of the

Gustav Meyrinks Der Golem 135

embedded narrative took place, Pernath lives on in an idyllic setting, under the
symbol of the hermaphrodite with his beloved Miriam, who was an important
figure in his path to liberation from the material world. Two further aspects of
the ending of the novel are worth noting. Although he lived decades prior to this
discovery, he has not aged a day, he exists in a place beyond time. Also, he and
the unnamed narrator are physically identical.
Many critics have commented on the fantastic and occultist elements of
the novel (Cersowsky; Jansen; Jennings; Marzin; Mitchell; Oehm; Pastuszka;
Qasim; Wnsch). Although rich in insight and rigour, these analyses nevertheless
tend to overlook a seminal trope in Pernaths journey: that of the somnambulist.
A reading that foregrounds somnambulism redresses this deficiency in the
secondary literature and reveals the novel to be the fictional representation of
a spiritual pilgrimage towards the healing of the internal duality discussed in
Meyrinks autobiographical texts. This interpretation, which combines fiction
and autobiography, comes into focus through the lens of allegory.
Many approaches to the genre of allegory (Broszeit-Rieger 28; Cowan
114; Ngele 85; Tesky 397408) point to a common facet of allegorical texts.
Allegory is an exegetical matrix, a text that creates a space in which different
interpretations can arise. The key to multiple interpretations resides in the
narrative structure. The allegory requires the interplay of two texts: the primary
text and the proof text. The interpretation of an allegory requires an external
text or narrative such as the Bible, myth, social mores, political realities (Madsen; Quilligan). A coupling of the primary and proof texts extrapolates a reading
distinct from yet coeval to the original narrative.
An approach suitable to an allegorical reading of Meyrinks text emerges from
Deborah Madsens monograph. She identifies two species of allegory that have
developed over time: allegory as metaphor (fabulistic) and allegory as metonymy
(figurative). Allegory as metaphor portrays an arbitrary relation of similitude
between text and its referent (50). An example of this is Aesops fables. They
represent a direct signifying relationship between textual signs and an extrinsic
system of ideas (34). This species of allegory links signs in a text for example
a fox and a crow to a general moral code, for example, that flattery from
certain quarters should be accepted with a grain of salt. The other type, on which
this study focusses, is metonymic, in that there exists an intrinsic similitude
between the primary text and the proof-text. Madsen quotes A. C. Charitys
definition of typology to help clarify metonymic allegory: One thing does not
mean another in typology: it involves it, or has inferences for it, or suggests it,
and it does all these things for no other reason than that there is a real, existential,
parallel, as well as a certain historical dependency and continuity between the
events which typology relates (44). An example of this kind of allegory is
the Christian exegesis of the Bible. When reading the Bible, one identifies an
interpretive relation between the Old Testament figure and its spiritual, New
Testament referent (45). Essential to this latter species of allegory, as Madsen
frames it, are shared figures or themes that link both texts. An allegorical reading

136

ERIC KLAUS

of Der Golem is a viable interpretive approach by dint of the intrinsic, existential

similitude between Meyrinks novel and his autobiographical texts, specifically,
Die Verwandlung des Blutes: the supernatural images and symbols in his novel
have counterparts in his autobiographical text. In this text, Meyrink interweaves
personal experiences, philosophical reflections, and polemical exclamations to
illustrate the schism of the psyche as well as to help the reader to overcome this
intrinsic ailment. At the nexus of this textual confluence stands, or wanders, the
sleepwalker.
The sleepwalker is the lynchpin for an allegorical reading. Although Die
Verwandlung des Blutes was most likely written in the 1920s, a full decade
after Der Golem was published, the events depicted in the autobiographical text
predate the novel. Accordingly, Die Verwandlung des Blutes describes experiences and fundamental themes that find expression Meyrinks oeuvre. The
contiguity between the two texts resides not in a precise mirroring of biography
and fiction, but in shared signposts along paths to salvation. First, one must
become receptive to the turbulence of the supernatural realm. This is achieved
by entering a trance represented by somnambulism. Contact with the apparitions
of the spiritual realm is the next phase. Specifically, one encounters ones own
intuition, which appears as a mysterious figure often disguised or masked
and which imparts knowledge cloaked in symbols and hieroglyphs. Finally,
one deciphers the language of the intuition with the help of guides and gurus.
Possessing this knowledge, one is able to unify the physical and the spiritual
realms and become master of ones fate the seminal moment in securing ones
salvation.
A comparison of Meyrinks biography to the path to salvation detailed
above reveals that the two narratives do not completely coincide. As described
in Der Lotse, his search for salvation began not with a trance, but with the
intervention by the masked figure he calls the pilot before he practiced yoga
and fell into the trance necessary to break free from the material self. The current
argument, however, does not claim an absolute equivalence between Meyrinks
personal experiences and his fiction. His fiction is a translation of his personal
experiences and should not be viewed as possessing a direct correlation to his
esoteric philosophy (Wnsch 531). For example, his novels explore a variety
of esoteric traditions, and therefore one cannot ascribe a one-to-one connection
between his own views and the views and deeds portrayed in his novels. Instead,
the current study argues that throughout his fiction and nonfiction there are
common processes that allow for the identification of patterns in his texts that
invite comparisons. By identifying the common traits in both Die Verwandlung
des Blutes and Der Golem, this studys allegorical approach will highlight the
real, existential and certain historical dependency and continuity (Madsen 44)
between the texts that marks metonymic allegory.
The first common trait of these processes that heal the duality in each
human being is entering the realm of the supernatural through a somnambulistic
trance. In Die Verwandlung des Blutes, Meyrink writes: Jeder Mensch ist

Gustav Meyrinks Der Golem 137

im Bewutsein gespalten (239). This doubled self is a seminal component
of Meyrinks works. Andrew J. Webber writes that the Doppelgnger in
his novels combine the totemic powers of a mystic cult figure with the
symptomatic features of the Freudian unconscious (352). The main concern
of this text is to teach the reader how to heal this inner spiritual divide in order
to take control of his or her fate, to become Herr ber sein Schicksal (Die
Verwandlung des Blutes 208). The method for healing the spiritual divide
is the practice of proper yoga. Yoga umschliet alle Praxis auf seelischem
und geistigem Gebiet; ist also jene gewisse Werkttigkeit, die dem Menschen
der Jetztzeit so gut wie ganz fehlt. Ich mchte sagen: Yoga ist der Sauerteig,
theoretische Erkenntnisse nur Mehl und Wasser (238). Yoga, which Meyrink
notes is largely absent in modern society, is an instrument for mediating
between the spiritual and material realities because it marries spiritual energy
to worldly activity. By properly practicing yoga, Meyrink pursues a cure for
the spiritual division by achieving a Verbindung, described here as die unlsbare Einswerdung des Menschen mit sich selbst (239). The unification
of the individual with him or herself occurs through die Vereinigung des
Unterbewuten oder berbewuten, wenn man dieses Wort gelten lassen will,
mit dem Tagesbewutsein des Menschen (240). This is the crux of his text and
indeed much of his ourevre. The individual is divided, is its own Doppelgnger.
Gerald Br notes that Das Doppelgnger motiv bleibt in verschiedene Ausformungen stets Bestandteil einer okkultischen Dynamik (399), and this
occultist dyamic permeates Meyrinks texts. The healing of the inner schism
from which each individual suffers stems from the unification of ones latent,
spiritual consciousness and ones waking, empirical consciousness. He outlines
how this unification is conducted, and uses a seminal metaphor in illustrating
this process: the somnambulist.
Meyrinks first successful endeavours in yoga are marked by falling into a
stupor akin to somnambulism. He explains:
Ich beobachtete mich selbst dabei so scharf ich nur konnte. Dabei wurde mir
bald klar: all das geschieht nur zu dem Zweck, damit du die Augachsen parallel
stellst. Zugleich erinnerte ich mich, in Bchern gelesen zu haben, da der Blick
der Somnambulen im Zustand der Ekstase immer wie in die Ferne schauend
gewesen sei. (216)

It is quite apt that Meyrink equates somnambulism with entering the state of
proper yoga and accessing the supernatural. Sleepwalkers exist in a state of
intermediate consciousness or as a character in Der Golem describes it: the
sleepwalker wanders in a region between waking and deep sleep. Investigations
into the nature of somnambulism and its relation to the nightlife of the soul
were common during this period, for it was argued that communication with
the spiritual realm is possible in this region of existence (Treitel 3040). While
in his trance, Meyrink discovers and develops the ability of inneres Schauen

138

ERIC KLAUS

the capacity of perceiving physical manifestations emanating from the spiritual

realm.
Meyrink tells of meditating outside and wondering to himself how late it had
become. It was then that he saw a vision:
Da, gerade in diesem Augenblick jenes Herausgerissenseins aus meiner
Versenkung sah ich mit einer Schrfe und Deutlichkeit, wie ich vorher niemals
in meinem Leben irgendeinen wirklichen Gegenstand wahrgenommen zu haben
mich erinnere, eine riesige Uhr grell leuchtend am Himmel stehen. Die Zeiger
wiesen: zwlf Minuten vor zwei. (214)

In fact it was twelve to two. Meyrinks inner eye, which yoga had opened,
had perceived the correct time. The ability of inner sight becomes possible
after entering a heightened state of spiritual awareness (217). He discovers
the supernatural by assuming the eyes of a somnambulist a state of interconsciousness that bridges the gap between the Unterbewusste and the Tagesbewusstsein. It is between waking and deep sleep that one enters this realm.
The protagonist in Der Golem, Athanasius Pernath, finds himself in similar
situations.
At one point in the embedded narrative, Pernath falls into a deep trance and
is unresponsive to any external stimulus. While in this condition, he is taken
to Schemajah Hillel, the synagogues registrar, who is well acquainted with
spiritual concerns. Hillel speaks to Pernath of spiritual things: Es gibt nur ein
wahres Wachsein, und das ist das, dem du dich jetzt nherst (80). Hillel then
moves his hand before Pernaths face and soon thereafter Pernath finds his mind
alive and active, witnessing visions and apparitions. This stupor embodies the
first phase in the process of spiritual awakening.
During this episode Pernath witnesses a series of opaque and eerie visions.
Significant among these is the book Ibbur, which, according to Hillel, makes the
soul fertile with the spirit of life (81). As Pernath explains:
Das Buch Ibbur erschien vor mir, und zwei Buchstaben flammten darin auf: der
eine, der das erste Weib bedeutete, mit dem Pulsschlag, mchtig, gleich einem
Erdbeben , der andere in unendlicher Ferne: Der Hermaphrodit auf dem Thron
von Perlmutter, auf dem Haupte die Krone aus rotem Holz. (85; emphasis in
the original)

This statement is replete with significant symbols for the process of spiritual
awakening and the unification of the divided self. The symbol of the hermaphrodite
plays an important role in the novel and in Meyrinks oeuvre. The apparitions
encountered here and elsewhere remain with Pernath as he attempts to decode
their meaning. The first step to spiritual salvation, the ability to perceive spiritual
turbulence through a somnambulistic state, leads to the second phase of this
process communication with ones intuition. In both texts the spiritual pilgrims
encounter mysterious figures that embody their intuitions and point the pilgrims

Gustav Meyrinks Der Golem 139

in the direction of their liberation from material exigencies: Meyrink meets the
Vermummter, the disguised one, and Pernath encounters the golem.
In Die Verwandlung des Blutes, Meyrink writes: Sechsunddreiig Jahre
sind es her, dass ich jene vermummte, geheimnisvolle Gestalt hinter den Kulissen
des Lebens zum ersten Male ahnte (209). He continues: Sie [die Gestalt] gab
mir stumme Zeichen, die ich lang, lang nicht verstand; ich war noch zu jung,
um zu erfassen, was mir die Gestalt sagen wollte (209). The language of the
disguised one is opaque, and one needs to decipher the stumme Zeichen to
benefit from its knowledge. Eventually, Meyrink did begin to listen and to follow
the leadership of this figure and came to recognize it as central to his well-being.
He writes: Der wahre, einzige Schlssel zum Glck, Wohlergehen, Gesundheit
und der gleichen ist: die Vereinigung mit dem Vermummten. Er ist das, was wir
im Leben Vorsehung nennen. Er is der, der hilft, wenn die Not am grten ist!
To become one with the disguised one is to experience happiness, success, and
good health. Yet this union is, because of the incongruity between the physical
and the spiritual selves, not easily achieved:
der innere verborgene, von uns abgetrennte, im Tagesbewutsein uns fremde,
urfremde Mensch, der Vermummte, steht gewissermaen senkrecht in uns [...].
Der uere Mensch ist von ihm getrennt, weil er schief steht irgendwie in
einem Sinne schief zu ihm! (271)

Meyrink goes on to argue that one becomes aligned with the disguised one
through yoga the key to bringing the spiritual and material portions of the self
into harmony. Pernath also encounters a mysterious character that leads him
down the path of happiness and to salvation. The role of the disguised one in the
novel is taken on by the golem and further illustrates metonymic allegory.
After the unnamed narrator drifts off to sleep and launches the embedded
narrative, Athanasius Pernath enters the story finding himself in curious circumstances. He is suddenly overcome with tremendous feelings of anxiety. He falls
into a curious stupor and is confronted with the visage of a strange figure. This
person appears in Pernaths apartment and gives him the book Ibbur. This text
is a catalyst for Pernaths interaction with the spiritual realm, for it activates and
animates latent spiritual powers and abilities. In a later scene, Hillel tells Pernath
who this stranger is: Nimm an, der Mann, der zu dir kam und den du den Golem
nennst, bedeute die Erweckung des Toten durch das innerste Geistesleben (80).
The golem encountered in Meyrinks text does not coincide with the traditional
figure of the golem in Jewish myth (Scholem 159). Instead, the golem is a symbol
for Pernaths intuition. He learns, and the reader along with him, that the intuition
is the collective wisdom of ones ancestors embodied in mysterious figures who
appear during moments of somnambulistic lucidity. The golem, as Hillel makes
clear, represents the awakening of the dead. It transmits cryptic images and
symbols that Pernath must learn to decipher, just as the disguised one did for
Meyrink. In both cases, he argues that one must not limit oneself to reflection on

140

ERIC KLAUS

events encountered in the spiritual realm. Instead, one must act on knowledge
procured in that realm. However, in order to act on that knowledge, one must be
in a position to comprehend the message of ones intuition. Therefore, help from
external sources and more experienced guides is required in order to progress in
ones journey.
Meyrinks process of spiritual awakening is due in no small part to the
assistance and guidance of many gurus. Indeed, Meyrink writes in Die Verwandlung des Blutes that one needs an interpreter to decipher the language of
intuition. The first interpreter Meyrink points to is das Leben:
Die greren Winke und Zeichen begriff ich nur langsam, denn das Leben
stellte mir andere Bilder vors Auge; es trat als Dolmetsch zwischen mich
und den Verhllten, als ich mich unfhig erwies, durch eigenes In-mir-selbstSchrfen seine Gebrden zu verstehen. (21011)

Life itself intervened when Meyrink did not know how he should proceed along
his path of spiritual awakening. As Meyrink details the events surrounding this
progression, life allowed him to overcome setbacks caused by charlatans posing
as sages and to glean true wisdom from his encounters, albeit not without struggle
and hardship. He offers the reader of Die Verwandlung des Blutes an example
from his own experience. He recalls seeing a perplexing vision: da scho [...]
ein grnlicher mannsdicker Lichtstrahl einige Meter vor mir vom Himmel herab,
und worauf die Erde traf, zerspaltete er sich in drei Teile, sodass er die Form eines
dreizackigen Ankers bekam (221). He asked himself how he should interpret this
vision and:
Sogleich kam mir als Antwort der Gedanke einen Gedanken nenne ichs,
weil ich keinen andern Ausdruck finde , eigentlich war es fast schon das Hren
einer Stimme; sie belehrte mich: der Anker heit soviel wie: Festhalten oder
Hoffen; die drei Zacken bedeuten: drei Tage. (222)

The three days correspond to the amount of time that elapses before Meyrink
meets a learned man, referred to as O. K., or Professor K, who himself claims
to have had a vision that called him to Prague to meet Meyrink in person (224).
Upon meeting O. K., Meyrink is convinced that this man is a genuine guru and
follows his prescribed lifestyle changes, specifically by engaging in an intense
regimen of ascetic exercises. These exercises did not, however, produce the
desired result, instead Meyrink learned from people he trusted that O. K. did not
possess any hidden knowledge: the charlatan O.K. was unmasked.
This is not the only experience Meyrink had with so-called gurus. Through
his contact with O. K. and others, Meyrink learned of a Rosicrucian in Hessen
referred to in Die Verwandlung des Blutes as J, who was known as Brother
Johannes or Alois Mailnder (Mitchell, Vivo 67; Harmsen 76). Meyrink sought
out the mystic and followed his teachings for thirteen years, a phase he describes
as a Dornenweg (Frank 225). Despite ultimately being disappointed in his

Gustav Meyrinks Der Golem 141

interactions with Mailnder, he believes that he learned an important lesson from
the Rosicrucian, namely that one must search for truth within oneself and that
the body must be included in ones overall transformation (Frank 22931). He
needed to identify the needle of truth in the haystack of falsehoods in his journey,
but Pernath has better luck with his spiritual mentors.
Several figures assist Pernath in his journey. One of them is his cellmate in
prison, Amadeus Laponder. Pernath is appalled when he first meets Laponder,
who is condemned to death on charges of rape and murder. Yet Laponder is
not completely what he seems. He is indeed a heinous criminal, but he is also
a sagacious guide for Pernaths own path to salvation. An important lesson
Laponder teaches Pernath is the composition of the soul: Die Seele ist nichts
Einzelnes sie soll es erst werden, und das nennt man dann: Unsterblichkeit;
Ihre Seele ist noch zusammengesetzt aus vielen Ichen so wie ein Ameisenstaat
aus vielen Ameisen (246). Here again the unity of the soul is necessary for the
ultimate goal of immortality to be achieved. Laponder expands upon the notion
of immortality: Das Ringen nach der Unsterblichkeit ist ein Kampf um das
Zepter gegen die uns innewohnenden Klnge und Gespenster; und das Warten
auf das Knigwerden des eigenen Ichs ist das Warten auf den Messias (250
51). He states that one must gain ascendancy over those unruly inner ghosts,
much as Meyrink teaches secrets to becoming Herr ber sein Schicksal. The
journeys depicted in Die Verwandlung des Blutes and Der Golem demand the
same process the unification of the self out of its disparate parts. Laponder then
speaks more directly to the seminal figure in this enterprise.
Der schemenhafte Habal Garmin, den Sie gesehen haben, der Hauch der
Knochen der Kabbala, das war der Knig. Wenn er gekrnt wird, dann reit
der Strick entzwei, mit dem Sie durch die ueren Sinne und den Schornstein
des Verstandes an die Welt gebunden sind. (251)

Earlier in the conversation, Laponder had alluded to the crowning of the true I,
and here he names the manifestation of the true I as the Habal Garmin. This
figure, then, is symbolically significant in that the crowning of the cabalistic
character inaugurates the new phase in Pernaths life the phase of liberation
and independence from the material world. The crowning of the ghostly Habal
Garmin will signal Pernaths ascendancy to immortality, the unification of his
self making it one and indivisible. This in fact is precisely what happens after
Pernath gains his freedom from prison.
After his release, Pernath returns to the ghetto only to find it in shambles.
The quarter has been torn down, and all that he had known is no more. While
sitting in his little attic room, he has a vision: Da stand mein Ebenbild auf
der Schwelle. Mein Doppelgnger. In einem weien Mantel. Eine Krone auf
dem Kopf (267; emphasis in the original). At that moment, fire breaks out and
Pernath is forced out of the building and falls to the street below. The naming
of the figure as a Doppelgnger is significant. At the core of this novel and

142

ERIC KLAUS

of Meyrinks epistemology is identity and the rescuing of ones self from the
obstacles preventing liberation by unifying the berbewute with the Tagesbewutsein. Of importance here is the culmination of the journey toward salvation. Pernath becomes receptive to the supernatural through somnambulistic
fugues. He learns and interprets the symbols of the language of intuition with
the help of gurus and guides. With the knowledge gained through this process he
becomes Herr ber sein Schicksal.
On one level, Meyrink writes, being master of ones fate means that one
develops the ability of the mind to overcome physical adversity through the
power of the will. In Die Verwandlung des Blutes Meyrink details how he
was able to conquer space and time through yoga exercises in order to communicate telepathically with his friend on one occasion and with his second
wife on another. More significant, however, is the fact that when one masters
ones fate, one attains hidden knowledge about the immortality of the soul.
This knowledge liberates an individual from a fundamental fear the fear of
death. Meyrink writes about this knowledge in Unsterblichkeit, a text that
mirrors Die Verwandlung des Blutes in meaningful ways. The brief text
seeks to disabuse readers of the notion that death is terminal, in other words
that death extinguishes the Ichbewutsein (Die Unsterblichkeit 293). The
current reality is merely one among many, and Meyrink claims that one can
recall the memories of past lives through yoga. Once again, yoga, an exercise
that induces a somnambulistic condition, is the key to accessing the beyond.
In the same text, Meyrink attempts to shed more light on the nature of yoga
by employing a metaphor of the divided self. He writes that the human being
is a
Doppelwesen, das [...] in einem Wagen sitzt: der eine, der Lenker, mit dem
Blick nach vorwrts in die Zukunft , der andere, der Erdenmensch, mit
dem Gesicht nach rckwrts in die Vergangenheit und aus diesem Grunde
nicht imstande, die Zukunft zu wissen. (295)

The bifurcated self can be mended through yoga, in this way allowing the individual to gain access to the future and the past: Der Zweck des wahren Yoga
jedenfalls ist es, dass aus Lenker und Passagier ein Einziger werde [...]. Gelingt
das, dann erkennt der Mensch, dass der Tod niemals existiert hat (296). Once
again, metonymic allegory allows for one to read Der Golem as a version of
Meyrinks own process of spiritual awakening. The unification of the self results
in the knowledge of immortality, knowledge that Pernath also gains.
After the fire scene in the embedded narrative, Pernath plummets to the
street below, and the narrator of the framed narrative awakens with a start. He
learns that he had slept for less than an hour and is still confused when he realizes
that he had taken the wrong hat after High Mass. The name written on the inside
of the hat is Athanasius Pernath, and it becomes clear that this switch has caused
him to live Pernaths life. Carl Gustav Jung has commented that Meyrink utilized

Gustav Meyrinks Der Golem 143

the motif of the exchanged hat to symbolize exchanged identities (Jung 80). The
narrator then sets out to find the place where Pernath lived. Making his way to
the Hradschin, he comes upon an idyllic vision in the Alchimistengasse, with
which he became acquainted during his wanderings as Pernath. It is there that he
finds Pernaths home: a white edifice surrounded by a splendid gate and garden.
On the gate is the god Osiris in the form of a hermaphrodite the symbol of
unification. The servant of the house approaches, and the narrator hands him
the hat. Once the gate is opened, the narrator spies the miraculously unaged
Pernath. Moreover, Pernath and the narrator share a striking resemblance: Mir
ist, als she ich mich im Spiegel, so hnlich ist sein Gesicht dem meinigen!
(280). Pernath has achieved the unification of his soul and resides with Miriam
in the shadow of the hermaphrodite. These symbols and motifs are common
to Meyrinks texts, for, as Br points out, the mystical union between man and
woman is constitutive of the Ganzwerdung at the heart of Meyrinks writing
(398). Intrinsic similitude the defining mark of metonymic allegory appears
again and again through the analysis. The common markers of each texts
process of salvation demonstrate that Der Golem is an allegory of Meyrinkian
salvation.
Questions surrounding the duality of material and spirit were plentiful
during the fin de sicle. Figures from different philosophical and cultural
traditions such as August Comte, Helena Blavatsky, and Walter Benjamin framed
epistemological questions in terms of a duality between the material and the
mystical. Some rejected one realm in favour of the other, some sought to meld
the two together, and others lamented the separation of the two in art. Meyrink
sought his own resolution in the occult; his solution to the epistemological crisis
is outlined in both his autobiographical and his fictional texts. His best-selling
novel, Der Golem, is an example of how his texts express his own epistemology.
The ultimate goal, to become the master of ones fate, which in practical terms
means to overcome fear and the temporal and material exigencies of this life, can
be realized first and foremost by knowledge the knowledge that each person
is a bifurcated being. This knowledge is attainable through occultist means and
resides within the individual. At the core of this endeavour is the somnambulist,
for in order to experience true awakening, one must wander the realm between
waking and deep sleep.
Works Cited
Br, Gerald. Das Motiv des Doppelgngers als Spaltungsphantasie in der Literatur und
im deutschen Stummfilm. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004.
Bauman, Zygmunt. Modernity and Ambivalence. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1991.
Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. Trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken, 1968.
Berman, Marshall. All that is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. New
York: Penguin, 1982.

144

ERIC KLAUS

Broch, Hermann. Die Schlafwandler. 19311932. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1994.

Broszeit-Rieger, Ute Ingrid. The Novel as Performance: Poetological Allegories in
Goethes Wilhelm Meister Novels. Diss. U of Virginia, 2001.
Cersowsky, Peter. Phantastische Literatur im ersten Viertel des 20. Jahrhunderts:
Untersuchungen zum Strukturwandel des Genres, seinen geistesgeschichtlichen
Voraussetzungen und zur Tradition der schwarzen Romantik insbesondere bei
Gustav Meyrink, Alfred Kubin und Franz Kafka. Munich: Fink, 1983.
Cowan, Bainard. Walter Benjamins Theory of Allegory. New German Critique 22
(1981): 10922.
Cranston, Sylvia. HPB: The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky,
Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement. New York: Putnams Sons, 1993.
Frank, Eduard. Introduction. Meyrink, Das Haus zur letzten Latern 738.
Gaede, Friedrich. Allegorie. Moderne Literatur in Grundbegriffen. Tbingen: Niemeyer,
1994. 3032.
Habermas, Jrgen. Modernity vs. Postmodernity. New German Critique 22 (1981):
314.
Harmsen, Theodor. Der magische Schriftsteller Gustav Meyrink, seine Freunde und sein
Werk. Amsterdam: Pelikaan, 2009.
Jansen, Bella. ber den Okkultismus in Gustav Meyrinks Roman Der Golem.
Neophilologus 7 (1922): 1923.
Jennings, Lee B. Meyrinks Der Golem: The Self as the Other. Aspects of Fantasy:
Selected Essays from the Second International Conference on the Fantastic in
Literature and Film. Ed. William Coyle. Westport: Greenwood, 1986. 5560.
Jung, C. G. Psychologie und Alchemie. Zurich: Rascher, 1953.
Karle, Robert. Gustav Meyrink und Alfred Kubin. Sudetenland 18 (1976): 17580.
Kniesche, Thomas, and Stephen Brockmann. Dancing on the Volcano: Essays on the
Cultures of the Weimar Republic. Columbia: Camden House, 1994.
Lube, Manfred. Gustav Meyrink als Literat in Prag, Wien und Mnchen. Phaicon 3. Ed.
Rein A. Zondergeld. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp 1978.
Madsen, Deborah L. Rereading Allegory: A Narrative Approach to Genre. New York: St.
Martins Press, 1994.
Marzin, Florian. Okkultismus und Phantastik in den Romanen Gustav Meyrink. Essen:
Blaue Eule, 1986.
Meyrink, Gustav. An der Grenze des Jenseits. 1923. Das Haus zur letzten Latern 372
447.
. Der Engel vom westlichen Fenster. 1929. Munich: Langen-Mller, 1975.
. Fledermuse: Erzhlungen, Fragmente, Aufstze. 1916. Ed. Eduard Frank.
Munich: Langen-Mller, 1992.
. Der Golem. 1915. Munich: Ullstein, 2000.
. Das Haus zur letzten Latern: Nachgelassenes und Verstreutes. Ed. Eduard Frank.
Munich; Langen Mller, 1973.
. Hochstapler der Mystik. 1927. Das Haus zur letzten Latern 35165.
. Der Lotse. 1952. Das Haus zur letzten Latern 38692.
. Unsterblichkeit. Fledermuse 29197.
. Die Verwandlung des Blutes. Fledermuse 20590.
. Walpurgisnacht. 1917. Prague: Vitalis, 2003.
. Der weie Dominikaner: Aus dem Tagebuch eines Unsichtbaren. 1921. Hamburg:
Books on Demand, 2002.

Gustav Meyrinks Der Golem 145

Mitchell, Mike. Gustav Meyrink. Major Figures of Austrian Literature: The Interwar
Years 19181938. Ed. Donald G. Daviau. Riverside: Ariadne Press, 1995. 26195.
. Vivo: The Life of Gustav Meyrink. Cambs: Dedalus, 2008.
Ngele, Rainer. The Laughing Tear: Constructions of Allegory in Modernism. Glasgow
Emblem Studies: New Directions in Emblem Studies 4 (1999): 7791.
Oehm, Heidemarie: Gustav Meyrink. Spiegel im dunklen Wort: Analysen zur Prosa
des frhen 20. Jahrhunderts. Ed. Winfried Freund. Frankfurt/ M.: Lang, 1983.
177203.
Pastuszka, Anna. Einige Bemerkungen zu Raumdarstellung und -deutung in Der Golem
von Gustav Meyrink. Lubelskie materially neofilologiczne 20 (1996): 5773.
Qasim, Mohammad. Gustav Meyrink: Eine monographische Untersuchung. Stuttgart:
Heinz, 1981.
Quilligan, Maureen. The Language of Allegory: Defining the Genre. Ithaca: Cornell UP,
1979.
Schdel, Siegfired. ber Gustav Meyrink und die phantastische Literatur, Studien zur
Trivialliteratur. Ed. Heinz Otto Burger. Frankfurt/M.: Kolstermann, 1968. 20924.
Scholem, Gerschom. On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism. Trans. Ralph Manheim. New
York: Schocken, 1996.
Smit, Frans. Gustav Meyrink: Auf der Suche nach dem bersinnlichen. Munich: Langen
Mller, 1988.
Teskey, Gordon. Irony, Allegory, and Metaphysical Decay. PMLA 109.3 (1994):
397408.
Treitel, Corinna. A Science for the Soul: Occultism and the Genesis of the German
Modern. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 2004.
Webber, Andrew J. The Doppelgnger: Double Visions in German Literature. Oxford:
Clarendon, 1996.
Weber, Samuel. Genealogy of Modernity: History, Myth and Allegory in Benjamins
Origin of the German Mourning Play. MLN 106.3 (1991): 465500.
Wiene, Robert, dir. Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari. Written by Hans Janowitz and Conrad
Mayer. Perf. Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt. Decla Bioscop, 1920.
Wolkan, Rudolf. Geschichte der deutschen Literatur in Bhmen und in den Sudetenlndern.
Augsburg: J. Stauda, 1925.
Wnsch, Marianne. Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Wirklichkeit Zur Logik einer
fantastischen Welt. Afterword. Meyrink, Der Engel 52868.

Copyright of Seminar -- A Journal of Germanic Studies is the property of UTP/Seminar A Journal of Germanic
Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the
copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for
individual use.