Im Spiegel des Prinzen . Fanny Lewalds auto/biographische Selbstreflexionen als Jüdin in »Prinz Louis Ferdinand« (1849)

This paper focusses on Fanny Lewald’s historical novel »Prinz Louis Ferdinand« of 1849. I examine the biographical as well as cultural-historical circumstances of the work’s genesis. Lewald clearly intended it as a critique of Prussian history, but at the same time the work’s focal point turns out to be a quite personal, female perspective. This perspective is mirrored in the prince’s experiences of loss and powerlessness. This leads me to explore the poetological dimensions of a writing in which the figure of the Prussian prince becomes a prismatic center of Lewald’s self-reflection. Here, the figure of Rahel Levin, as prominently portrayed by Lewald in her novel, plays a special role. It is precisely in her that the author’s interest in the political position of the Jewess in her as well as in Rahel Levin’s time becomes apparent.