Emil Orlik’s life and career are a symbol of the vitality of cultural exchange in the German speaking world before and after World War I. Orlik, who was born in Prague in 1870, was a genuine offspring of the Habsburg Empire, with a complex identity - Jewish, Czech, and German-speaking, which brought him closer to the German Bohemians. He was an integral part of the artistic and cultural circles of the Dual Monarchy and member of the Viennese Secession. In 1900, Rainer Maria Rilke published in the Viennese Secession journal Ver Sacrum an essay on Orlik titled Ein prager Künstler (A Prague Artist). As he travelled extensively in Europe and further spent almost a year in Japan, becoming an avid Japoniste, Orlik brought a great deal of experience to the art scenes in Prague and Vienna. Yet, after leaving the Secession association together with the “Gustav Klimt group” in 1905, Orlik set up his studio in Berlin. He was appointed Professor at the Unterrichtsanstalt des Berliner Kunstgewerbemuseums (Educational Institute of the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts), a post he held until his retirement. In Berlin Orlik flourished as an illustrator, photographer as well as a theatre set and costume designer. He was so well received in the city that he was sometimes considered a “German artist.” Orlik socialized with members of the Berlin Secession including Max Slevogt, Lovis Corinth, Max Kruse, and Max Liebermann. Though he died in the German capital in 1932, he was buried in the New Jewish Cemetery in his beloved Prague.