Dimitry Shumsky´s study addresses the question of how the cultural-political background of the Jewish milieu in Prague, squarely aligned between its German and Czech roots, became the vital spark for Zionism during the Habsburg Monarchy. Such personalities as the philosopher Hugo Bergmann, the historian Hans Kohn and the publicist Robert Weltsch actively participated in the public debates at the time. They turned their experiences in a supernational monarchic world full of conflict into the basis for realising the project of a federal Jewish-Arab commonwealth in Palestine.
