Felix Mendelssohn- Gustav Mahler: Two Borderline Cases of German- Jewish Assimilation

Mendelssohn and Mahler represent the attempts of Jewish composers to assimilate into their German or Austrian surroundings. Although originating from different surroundings and backgrounds their success and failure to assimilate represent their situation as Jews in a mixed surrounding. A comparison is made between Mendelssohn and Mahler's situation. While Mendelssohn had family discussions their Jewish descent, Mahler suffered much more from anti-Semitism which was more prevalent in his time.