{"id":37931,"date":"2026-07-02T14:56:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/?p=37931"},"modified":"2026-07-02T14:56:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:56:45","slug":"soma-morgenstern-the-man-who-lived-in-a-new-york-hotel-for-25-years-and-never-found-his-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/soma-morgenstern-the-man-who-lived-in-a-new-york-hotel-for-25-years-and-never-found-his-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Soma Morgenstern: The man who lived in a New York hotel for 25 years and never found his home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Soma Morgenstern (1890\u20131976) was a writer, playwright, journalist, and music critic who survived two world wars and experienced the loss of loved ones, a long separation from his wife and son, and cultural exile. He had to emigrate to other countries, even to another continent, to save his life. Until his death, he remained a German-speaking author in the English-speaking world, never gaining popularity among American readers despite modest recognition. Unlike his close friend Joseph Roth (1894\u20131939), who avoided references to his Jewish background and completely assimilated into the European world, Soma Morgenstern was proud of his roots and the religious, cultural, and linguistic traditions of his family. \"There was a lot of love in our home. Even after my father died, when the family fell apart. I was the youngest and perhaps got the most love,\" he wrote in his diary.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You are a child of the Sabbath, a happy child!<\/h2>\n

The future classic of German-language literature was born on Saturday, 3 May 1890, into the family of Podolian Jews Abram and Sarah (n\u00e9e Schwartz) Morgenstern. He was the fifth and youngest child, preceded by his sisters Klara (1880) and Helena (Hela) (1882), his brother Moses (Mosel) (1885), and Samuel (Schmelkele) (1888), Soma's beloved sibling.<\/p>\n

In his memoirs, In Another Time. Youth in Eastern Galicia<\/em>, the author recounts the story of childbirth told by his mother: \"After lighting the Sabbath candles, she felt the first pangs. And when my father returned from the house of prayer, I was already here. 'You are a child of the Sabbath, a happy child!'<\/em>\" she told her son. The description of his father returning from the house of prayer and lighting candles contradicts other memories of Morgenstern:<\/p>\n

\"My youth was spent in five different villages. The place where I was born does not count. I was born there only because every time before giving birth, my mother went to her mother. She did the same before my birth, although I was already the fifth child, and one might have thought that childbirth no longer needed the support of her mother.<\/em>\"<\/p>\n

It is known with certainty that he was born not far from the eastern border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the village of Budzaniv (now Budaniv), situated on the banks of the Seret River, approximately 50 km from Ternopil. According to the 1900 census, more than 5,500 people lived there in a typical Eastern Galician multiethnic and multilingual community.<\/p>\n

Youth in Eastern Galicia<\/h2>\n

Soma's first language was Ukrainian. His nurse and nanny in his early years was the 16-year-old Donia, whom Soma Morgenstern fondly recalled in his memoirs in his later years. His parents felt sad because the native language of his ancestors remained second for the future writer:<\/p>\n

\"I spoke all the languages that I later mastered \u2014 and there were many of them \u2014 with a Ukrainian accent. I learned my second language, Yiddish, partly from my mother and partly from my eldest sister, with whom we were separated by ten years<\/em>.\"<\/p>\n

His mother came from a family of religious Jewish merchants. His father came from a family of scholars and Kabbalists, studied the Holy Scriptures, graduated from a Talmud high school, worked as a merchant, and fulfilled the functions of a rabbi. The worldview of their family was deeply rooted in religion. Still, the parents did not limit contacts with the outside non-Jewish world and did not try to isolate their children from members of other nations. Soma recalls how, during his school years, encouraged by his father's support, he sang in a choir on the occasion of the visit of the Bishop (probably Andrei Sheptytsky). Then, several selected singers were presented with obrazoks <\/em>(colored miniature pictures of saints), and the soloist received one of the Holy Virgin. Noticing the student's confusion, the director asked the priest to replace the image. Already as an adult, Morgenstern wrote:<\/p>\n

\"Recalling the past, I think that this was the only time my father gave me bad advice. He should not have allowed me to be a soloist for the school principal <\u2026>. I was not taught how to <\/em>handle<\/em> the Holy Virgin. But in my predicament, instinctive tactfulness saved me. And although I also owe this sense of tactfulness to my father, he should not have said that I could sing that hymn even in front of the Pope<\/em>.\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Twenty-two years of Soma Morgenstern's life are inseparably linked with the Ternopil region, which he considered his homeland. After the familiar pre-war world collapsed, he would travel there in his thoughts, to the best memories of his youth. Soma often mentioned Ukrainian towns and villages he knew so well both in his memoirs and his novels. However, he almost never used real toponyms, sometimes dropping only vague hints. We know Morgenstern mostly from his memoirs, diaries, and surviving letters. Due to the tragic events of the 20th century and the loss of family property, there are almost no documents left that would confirm or refute what he wrote.<\/p>\n

According to various sources, the family had changed addresses four or five times by 1904. Morgenstern noted that his father had done so at the insistence of his mother, who sought better living conditions for the family and was the driving force behind the change.<\/p>\n

When Soma was six years old, the family moved to the village of Loshyniv, the birthplace of Abram Morgenstern. Soma went to a Ukrainian folk school. Later, he studied at a Polish school in Burkaniv for two years, after which the family moved again. He then continued his studies at the Polish-Ukrainian rural school in Dobropole <\/em><\/strong>until he entered a gymnasium.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

School studies came easily to Morgenstern, who had a penchant for various subjects, especially languages. Growing up in a multiethnic environment, where he picked up Ukrainian and Yiddish in childhood, he quickly mastered Polish and German:<\/p>\n

\"Since I had already learned Ukrainian from my wet nurse, not only did this language juggling come to me without effort, but it awakened an early interest in languages, which I retained for the rest of my life.<\/em>\"<\/p>\n

In 1904, breaking his father's ban, he passed the exams and became a student at the Juliusz S\u0142owacki Ternopil Polish Gymnasium, which he finished in 1912, two years before the war. This period was marked by numerous internal transformations, as the young man showed an interest in philosophy, theater, and world literature and experienced a crisis of religiosity and a separation from his family.<\/p>\n

Soma Morgenstern met Joseph Roth, who was four years his junior, at a conference of Zionist students in 1909, and from then on, their paths would often cross.<\/p>\n

Horses: Love and death of the Morgensterns<\/h2>\n

The men in the Morgenstern family had a subconscious attachment to horses. A reverent attitude towards them was passed down from generation to generation, but for at least two Morgensterns, these animals became messengers of death.<\/p>\n

Soma's real name was Salomo in honor of Abram's father Solomon, who crashed while riding his horses down a hill on the way to the circumcision ceremony of his youngest grandson Schmelkele:<\/p>\n

\"Whenever the topic of the terrible incident with grandfather came up, Schmelkele almost cried. He felt guilty for the death of his grandfather. He said, Didn't the unfortunate grandfather die on the way to the ceremony of my circumcision? If he had not been born, his grandfather would still be alive.<\/em>\"<\/p>\n

The future writer was born two years after the fatal accident. He did not share the sadness of his relatives when he heard this story, recalling in his memoirs:<\/p>\n

\"I was truly proud to bear my grandfather's name. Wasn't I, the one who bears my grandfather's name, born to continue his life?<\/em>\"<\/p>\n

The writer's father also died as a result of a fall from a horse: an owl that flew out of a haystack frightened the animal, and it bolted blindly onto a transmission belt. The horse died instantly, while Abram Morgenstern lived for some time, although his last days were full of torment. Soma was left alone with his father when he passed away:<\/p>\n

\"I had never seen anyone die before. I had not seen a deceased person. I took my father's hand once more and kissed it to come to terms with his death<\/em>.\"<\/p>\n

This untimely death was forever imprinted on Morgenstern's mind.<\/p>\n

After the family lost its breadwinner, its financial situation deteriorated significantly. Nevertheless, Soma continued his studies, which was what he and his relatives wanted. He earned some money by tutoring, cut down on all possible expenses, and lived a modest life. After passing the exams, he enrolled in the University of Vienna to fulfill his father's last will \u2014 he wanted Soma to become a judge.<\/p>\n

In his second year, Morgenstern transferred to Lviv University, where, as in the capital, antisemitic attitudes were already quite palpable. World War I broke out soon after.<\/p>\n

The first war<\/h2>\n

In his memoirs, Soma Morgenstern noted that when the news of the assassination of the heir to the throne spread, he was in the village with his relatives and was so confident in the Austrian army that he agreed to work as a tutor for three months for a landowner from a nearby village. Morgenstern never reached that village. Saying goodbye to Joseph Roth for the summer holidays, he did not suspect that they would soon meet in Vienna in a new status \u2014 as refugees. In his memoirs, Joseph Roths Flucht und Ende<\/em> (Joseph Roth's Flight and End), Soma shares his personal experience:<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Saturday, I was having dinner with my mother and sister when an intense artillery barrage announced the arrival of the Russians and the retreat of our army. We were sitting at the table, and then we got up and fled, first on foot. The three of us, along with my mother and sister, left the city with a flood of refugees and went west to another village. I dared to take a raincoat with me, and that was all I had when I arrived in Vienna with my family six weeks later.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

On 17 September 1914, the Morgenstern family was issued a Vienna registration form.<\/p>\n

Soma attempted to reach the Eastern Front. He failed the initial medical checkup but passed the subsequent one. Georg B. Deutsch, a researcher of Soma Morgenstern's biography and the creator of a website<\/a> dedicated to him, writes that the writer participated in combat operations with the Austrian infantry in Serbia and Hungary and served as an agent buying horses for the army.<\/p>\n

His beloved brother Schmelkele, who was also a soldier, died in Russian captivity early in the war.<\/p>\n

Interwar period<\/h2>\n

Soma Morgenstern returned to Vienna in 1918. His life would be closely connected to this city for the next 20 years, with only minor interruptions. At the same time, he resumed his studies at the Faculty of Law, although he aspired to become a playwright. In the end, he managed to partially realize this dream in just three years by writing the play \"ER oder ER\" (He or He) and \"Im Dunstkreis\" (In the circle of vapor).<\/p>\n

On 1 August 1924, the Berliner Tageblatt<\/em> published a text honoring the memory of Franz Kafka, authored by Soma Morgenstern. This obituary marked the start of his journalistic career. Two years later, he moved to Berlin, where he penned articles for the Vossische Zeitung<\/em> and Die Literatur<\/em>. Then, in 1927, Morgenstern became a correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung<\/em> and ended up in Frankfurt, from where he returned to Vienna in February of the following year. \"From then on, he wrote about the Viennese cultural life, which he had studied and loved well by then, and renewed contacts that would later enrich his biography,\" notes Rafaela Kitzmantel in the book Eine \u00dcberf\u00fclle an Gegenwart<\/em> (An Overabundance of the Present) [Kitz, p. 91].<\/p>\n

In 1929, Soma Morgenstern and Ingeborg von Klenau (1904\u20131990) had a son, Dan (1929\u20132024), who inherited his father's interest in music and became one of the most popular American jazz historians.<\/p>\n

The following years were a period of Morgenstern's greatest creative upsurge. In the 1930s, his articles appeared in Die Weltb\u00fchne<\/em>, Wiener Zeitung<\/em>, Berliner Morgenpost<\/em>, Pariser Tageszeitung<\/em>, Die \u00f6sterreichische Post<\/em>, and Freies \u00d6sterreich<\/em>. At the same time, he began writing the novel Der Sohn des verlorenen Sohnes<\/em> (The Son of the Lost Son), the first part of the trilogy Funken im Abgrund<\/em> (Sparks in the Abyss). Published in Berlin in December 1935, the book told the story of a young Jew who abandoned the religion of his ancestors but then reconverted. It sold an unbelievable 4,000 copies in a few weeks in a Germany gripped by antisemitic sentiments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Using the example of the Mohylevsky family from the Podolian village of Dobropillia, the author depicts the shameful tragedy experienced by this family when their son Joseph, brought up in the context of Christianity, leaves their traditional faith but then returns to his Jewish roots. Set mainly in the Ukrainian Podolia region, the trilogy is gradually becoming available to the Ukrainian reader 89 years (!) after it was written: The Son of the Lost Son<\/em> (1935) appeared in Petro Rykhlo's translation in 2024; Idyll in Exile<\/em> (1947) [was] published in early September 2025, and work is currently underway on translating The Testament of the Lost Son<\/em> (1950). Morgenstern worked on his trilogy for several decades. It is partly autobiographical and contains answers to questions that concerned him during his studies at the Ternopil gymnasium.<\/p>\n

Sparks in the Abyss<\/em> forever inscribed Soma Morgenstern's name in world literature on a par with Alban Berg, Ernest Bloch, Hermann Hesse, Robert Musil, Joseph Roth, and others.<\/p>\n

Exile in Paris<\/h2>\n

With the Nazis coming to power, Soma Morgenstern was fired from the Frankfurter Zeitung<\/em> and struggled financially and morally since then. Until 1938, he and his family lived mainly in Vienna, but he was forced to flee to Paris after the Anschluss, leaving his wife and son behind in Austria.<\/p>\n

In the French capital, Soma stayed in a small hotel and was a neighbor of Josef Roth. They met from time to time in the company of writers and other cultural figures who gathered in a nearby cafe.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With the assistance of Thomas Mann, Soma Morgenstern was awarded a grant from the American Guild for the Support of German Cultural Freedom. For several months, he received a scholarship of USD 30 per month, which enabled him to continue writing the final part of the trilogy Sparks in the Abyss<\/em>. In 1939, Ingeborg and Dan visited her husband in Paris for the last time before a long separation.<\/p>\n

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World War II. American Exile<\/h2>\n

On 22 May 1940, when the Germans occupied part of the French territories, Soma Morgenstern was arrested and sent to a camp. He managed to escape and crossed the border into the unoccupied territories of France in July, shortly before the arrival of the Gestapo. After failed attempts to obtain a visa, he was again imprisoned, but his friends helped him leave the country. Soma had his documents for residence in the USA approved in Lisbon and stepped on American soil on 15 April 1941.<\/p>\n

According to the German publisher Ingolf Schulte, Morgenstern lived in the Park Plaza Hotel for more than 25 years, in an area near Central Park well-known to emigrants [Flucht, p. 307].<\/p>\n

Postwar years<\/h2>\n

Due to forced departures and persecution by the occupying authorities, Soma Morgenstern lost a large part of his library, personal diaries, letters, and manuscripts. He had to reconstruct the second and third novels of the trilogy from memory. In 1946, he successfully obtained American citizenship, and his wife and son soon joined him in the USA.<\/p>\n

In the maelstrom of war, Morgenstern lost three more of his closest relatives:<\/p>\n

\"The third was my older brother, Zavodiy, who was murdered by the Germans in Dachau. One of my sisters was tortured in another concentration camp. My mother, at the age of 82, was deported to the Terezin concentration camp, where she died a 'natural' death.<\/em>\"<\/p>\n

When Soma Morgenstern learned about their tragic fate after the war, the news sent him into a deep existential crisis. A 1949 diary entry reads: \"How often I have thought about suicide in recent years. Since 1945, hardly a day has passed without these thoughts. There is no intention behind it, no decision, no plan. I simply see no other end for myself\" [quoted in Flucht, p. 307].<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It seemed as if life in the USA was about to get better, but after the war, Soma Morgenstern was unable to overcome his resistance to the language in which his relatives were tortured and, at the same time, in which he wrote his best texts. This led to long breaks in his work, but Morgenstern was unable to abandon German.<\/p>\n

He wrote works of various genres and themes, including Die Bluts\u00e4ule<\/em> (The Pillar of Blood, 1955), Der Tod ist ein Flop<\/em> (Death is a Flop, 1994), Joseph Roths Flucht und Ende<\/em> (Joseph Roth's Flight and End, 1994), and others. After 1955, he worked on his memoirs In einer anderen Zeit. Jugendjahre in Ostgalizien<\/em> (In Another Time. Youth in Eastern Galicia, 1995).<\/p>\n

Instead of an epilogue<\/h2>\n

\"I am still alive; sudden death did not take me. But there is no one else alive from my family. And none of them died a natural death. <\u2026> even in my wildest dreams, I had no reason to assume that I would live to a respectable age, so I have not yet learned to be old. This complicates my life, but it also makes it easier at the same time. The question of whether I would really die a death other than a natural death, as my father had predicted, did not bother me at all. Of course, from time to time, I am seized with curiosity about how this will happen. But the reader of this book will learn about it with greater probability than I will<\/em>,\" Soma Morgenstern wrote about himself.<\/p>\n

He did not have time to finish his memoirs. Apparently, Soma wanted to bring the story of his youth up to 1914, but he died without preparing the manuscript for publication. Soma Morgenstern's heart stopped on 17 April 1976 in a New York hospital \u2014 on the other side of the planet, thousands of kilometers from the Podolian world of his childhood. For 18 years after his death, the writer's name and work remained in the shadows, but now books are gradually appearing in English, German, and other languages \u2014 and finally, we have them in Ukrainian.<\/p>\n

I want to add just one thing: there is a need for more. It's time to bring Soma Morgenstern back home, to the homeland he dreamed about all his life \u2014 and to the people whom he mentioned in his works with such fondness.<\/p>\n

Literature:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n