In 1927 Jakob Wassermann (1873–1934), then in his mid-fifties, undertook a triumphant lecture tour of the United States that lasted several months. He was at the height of his powers as a writer, and the tour of the USA confirmed that he had also advanced from being one of the most widely read novelists in Germany in the 1920s to become a “Welt-Star des Romans” (world star of the novel), as his fellow novelist and friend Thomas Mann dubbed him shortly after his death. All over America, crowds flocked to hear him speak, to the extent that the police had to be called to restore public order on the occasion of a lecture at Columbia University. Wassermann's global appeal seems to have been particularly strong to young people, with the effect he had on the younger generation of the 1920s being likened to Hermann Hesse's significance for the hippy generation of the 1960s.

Whilst in America, the workaholic Wassermann, who wrote more than a dozen novels as well as dozens of short stories and was also a prolific critic, essayist, and biographer, was working on the novel Der Fall Maurizius (The Maurizius Case) which on its publication the following year would confirm and enhance his reputation and readership both in Germany and abroad.