Reconsidering Walther Rathenau: Acculturation, Assimilation and Zionism in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Germany
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Authors
Stern, Daniel J.
Issue Date
2006
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
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Abstract
The nineteenth- and twentieth-century saw unprecedented changes in both
European and German Jewry. In addition to an influx of Eastern European Jewish
communities into Germany, new, never before experienced privileges were being given to
those Jews who were already living there. The revolutions of 1848 brought new
emancipation for German Jews and, if not in practice, then at least in name, the German
Jew claimed greater civil rights. The age-old concept of the poor Jewish beggar, as well
as other anti-Semitic stereotypes, was abolished by the new opportunities for Jews to
achieve success. In many ways these promises held true, but also in many ways, the
optimistic goals that they sought to achieve were never realized. As we will see, Jewish
emancipation was both partial and conditional.
Nonetheless, never before in history was a Jewish population so overwhelmingly
successful than during the approximately eighty years that the Jews coexisted with the
larger German population, before the rise of the Nazi Party. German Jews became
accomplished businessmen, ascended to positions of high social status, and became great
purveyors as well as consumers of high German culture. In later generations Jewish
students performed disproportionately well at the German university as compared to their
gentile counterparts. In one sense, nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Germany was
an ideal situation for those European Jews who had escaped the hardship and abuse of the
Eastern European countries.
Description
iii, 71 p.
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