Siegfried Kapper was the
literary pseudonym of Isaac Salomon Kapper (21 March 1821,
Smíchov – 7 June 1879,
Prague), a
Bohemian-born
Austrian writer of
Jewish origin. Born in
Smichow, Kapper studied medicine at
Prague University, later completing a
Ph.D. at the
University of Vienna. Kapper wrote excellent fairy tales and poems, and was one of the leading figures of Czech-Jewish assimilation. Kapper wrote in both
German and
Czech. He translated
Mácha's Máj into German for the first time (1844).[1] Austrian composer
Nina Stollewerk used Kapper's text for her composition "Zwei Gedichte," opus 5.[2]
After his death, the Kapper-Society was founded; its aim was Czech-Jewish assimilation and opposition to
Zionism and German-Jewish assimilation.[3]
Selected works
"Das Böhmerland" (1865)
"Die Handschriften Altböhmischer Poesien" (1859)
"Die Böhmischen Bäder" (1857)
"Fürst Lazar" (1853)
"Falk" (1853)
"Südslavische Wanderungen" (1853)
"Die Gesänge der Serben" (1852 – in two parts)
"Lazar der Serbenzar" (1851). Kapper had a Serbian predecessor in the person of Joksim Nović-Otočanin who published his book on the same theme at Novi Sad (
Neusatz) in 1847.
Tales of the Prague Ghetto. Prague: Karolinum Press (2022).
ISBN9788024649450. The stories Kapper wrote about the Jews of Prague (collected posthumously as Prager Ghettosagen, 1896).