HOMO JUVENIS, THE GENERATION GAP

Abstract

My early German writings are little known. They are, however, significant because of their prophetic anticipation of the attitude of the younger generation of our time. I coined the term Homo Juvenis to contrast with Home Sapiens and pointed out the generation gap, perhaps for the first time in literature, in an extreme philosophical form. I wrote Homo Juvenis in 1908 and it was published for the first time in Einladung zu einer Begegnung in 1914. This is the first time that this piece is translated into English. I declared it on numerous occasions during 1908-1914 as the epitome of the youth movement. Many of the young people of that day became well known in adult life, Siegfried Bernfeld, who later became a distinguished psychoanalyst, Ruth Eisler who later became Ruth Fischer, leader of the German communist party, her brother Gerhard Eisler, the wellknown communist spy, Elizabeth Bergner, grand lady of the German theater under Max Reinhardt, to mention but a few. It is remarkable that almost seventy years later, and in my own lifetime at that, the same mood of opposition prevails in the world of youth today. Nothing is new under the sun. Interesting is that my son, Jonathan, when reading this part said: "Well, that's it. This is bow young people feel."