Ost und West

Ost und West ("East and West") was a German magazine meant to bridge the German Jewish world and the Eastern European Jewish world.[1] The magazine, headquartered in Berlin, operated from 1901 to 1923.[2]

For the silent film, see East and West (film).

1901 magazine cover designed by E. M. Lilien

History

It was the first "ethnic magazine" in human history and the first Jewish illustrierte (DE).[3] The editors intended to reverse assimilation of Jewish people into the wider German society and David Brenner, author of "Neglected 'Women's' Texts and Contexts: Vicki Baum's Jewish Ghetto Stories," stated that the editors hoped to accomplish this "by constructing an ethnic identity that included East European or "Eastern" forms of Jewishness."[2]

David A. Brenner, author of German-Jewish Popular Culture before the Holocaust: Kafka's kitsch, wrote that the magazine is an "ideal" source for evaluating the reception to Yiddish theatre in Germany especially since "studies of popular Berlin theater, including Yiddish-language theater, are few and far between".[4]

References

1. Aschheim, p. 96-97 Aschheim, Steven E. The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890-1990 (Issue 2 of The Weird and Horrible Library, Volume 2 of Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism). University of California Press, 1994. ISBN 0520914805, 9780520914803..
2. Brenner, "Neglected 'Women's' Texts and Contexts: Vicki Baum's Jewish Ghetto Stories," p. 103.
3. Brenner, "Neglected 'Women's' Texts and Contexts: Vicki Baum's Jewish Ghetto Stories," p. 102.
4. Brenner, German-Jewish Popular Culture before the Holocaust: Kafka's kitsch, p. 14.

Further reading

• Brenner, David A. Marketing Identities: The Invention of Jewish Ethnicity in Ost und West. Wayne State University Press, 1998. ISBN 0814326846, 9780814326848.
• Digitized files for Ost and West can be found at the Judaica Division Goethe University /University Library, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Vollständig digitalisierte Zeitschrift in Compact Memory

• Brenner, David A. "Neglected 'Women's' Texts and Contexts: Vicki Baum's Jewish Ghetto Stories." In: Friedrichsmeyer, Sara and Patricia Herminghouse (editors). Women in German Yearbook. University of Nebraska Press, June 1, 1998. ISBN 080329803X, 9780803298033.
• Brenner, David A. German-Jewish Popular Culture before the Holocaust: Kafka's kitsch. Taylor & Francis US, July 8, 2008. ISBN 0203894030, 9780203894033.