More German than the Germans

The assimilated Jewish community in Germany, prior to World War II, has been self-described as "more German than the Germans". Originally, the comment was a "common sneer aimed at people" who had "thrown off the faith of their forefathers and adopted the garb of their Fatherland".[1] The German assimilation, following the Enlightenment, was "unprecedented".[2]

The quote is sometimes ascribed to Chaim Weizmann.[3]

Background

Following the Enlightenment, many European Jews regarded Germany as a particularly desirable place to live, "a place of refuge, in comparison to Russia and Romania" where antisemitism was extremely virulent and violent, and even France, where the Enlightenment had begun.[3] German Jews began to immerse themselves in German culture and the arts, playing a full and even leading role in society. By the twentieth century, the German Jews had reached a state of Bildung und Besitz (i.e. cultivation and wealth).[3]

Forming a German-Jewish identity

Jewish women played a major role in the process of forming German-Jewish identity. Since they understood that Jews can hold both Jewish and national identities, Jewish women raised loyal families to Germany in the Imperial era. They served as mediators of Bildung within their homes and families, while simultaneously serving as agents of tradition.[4] Many Jewish women continued to keep koshers homes, attend synagogue on the Sabbath, and perform other Jewish rituals. In this light, Jews could be men and women on the streets and Jews in their homes, as suggested by Enlightenment advocator Yehuda Leib Gordon.[5]

Furthermore, Jewish women were instrumental in forming the social positions of Jews and their sense of "Germanness."[6] They encouraged their children to acculturate through their dress, speech and education and appreciated German entertainment and literature. Jewish women sent their children to music lessons and advanced secular schools. Thus, by combining German bourgeois practice and Jewish heritage, they formed a German-Jewish identity that balanced integration and tradition. Jewish women helped their families look, act, and feel like other Germans while remaining Jewish.[7] Their actions allowed Jews to ultimately receive the description of being "more German than the Germans."

Examples

Kurt Singer (born 1885, died 1944 in Theresienstadt concentration camp), was a conductor, musician, musicologist, and neurologist. He was described by his daughter as "more German than the Germans", as he earned an Iron Cross for his gallantry in World War I, was music editor for a Berlin newspaper, and published research on German folk songs, Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner.[8]

British scholar Nikolaus Pevsner was described as "more German than the Germans" for his support of Goebbels' drive for "pure non-decadent German art" and was reported as saying, of the Nazis in 1933, "I want this movement to succeed. There is no alternative but chaos ... there are things worse than Hitlerism".[9]

German Jew Betty Lipton described German-Jewish identity after emancipation in "At Home in Berlin." She wrote that her family kept a kosher home, attended synagogue, and was a part of Berlin's tight-knit Jewish community. Simultaneously, her family was loyal to Germany. In 1914, they displayed the largest black, white, and red flag on their whole street.[10] This short account portrays why Jewish families were often described as "more German than the Germans."

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See also

References
  1. Daniel Snowman (2010). The Hitler Emigrés: The Cultural Impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism. Random House. ISBN 1-4464-0591-5.
  2. Abraham J. Peck (1988). The German-Jewish Legacy in America, 1938–1988: From Bildung to the Bill of Rights. Wayne State University Press. p. 235. ISBN 0-8143-2263-8.
  3. Marvin Perry; Frederick M. Schweitzer (2002). Anti-Semitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 90. ISBN 0-312-16561-7.
  4. Kaplan, Marion A. (1992). "Gender and Jewish History in Imperial Germany". Assimilation and Community: The Jews in Nineteenth-Century Europe: 209. ISBN 0-5215-2601-9
  5. Kaplan, Marion A. (1992). "Gender and Jewish History in Imperial Germany". Assimilation and Community: The Jews in Nineteenth-Century Europe: 201.
  6. Kaplan, Marion A. (1992). "Gender and Jewish History in Imperial Germany". Assimilation and Community: The Jews in Nineteenth-Century Europe: 219.
  7. Kaplan, Marion A. (1992). "Gender and Jewish History in Imperial Germany". Assimilation and Community: The Jews in Nineteenth-Century Europe: 208.
  8. "Kurt Singer". Music and the Holocaust. World ORT. Archived from the original on 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
  9. Stephen Games (2010). Pevsner: The Early Life: Germany and Art. Continuum. p. 187. ISBN 1-4411-4386-6.
  10. Kaplan, Marion A. (1992). "Gender and Jewish History in Imperial Germany". Assimilation and Community: The Jews in Nineteenth-Century Europe: 199.
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