This study analyses the career of Max Brod during the first decades of the 20th century in the cultural and political context of Prague and against the background of the problems of identity which were typical for this context. After the failure of his first attempt to solve the problem of identity by espousing an 'indifferentist' philosophy of life, Brod developed a personal conception of Judaism which took Buber as its starting point. Working from the discovery of this identity, he plays an active role in the Zionist movement and in the political life of the first Czechoslovak Republic working for the recognition of Jewish nationality and as a cultural mediator for the benefit of members of the Prague Circle and Czech artists.