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The Attempt to Form a Jewish Bloc: Jewish Notables and Politics in Wilhelmian Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Marjorie Lamberti
Marjorie Lamberti
Affiliation:
Middlebury College
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Extract

One of the ironical facts in the history of the Jews in Germany is that it was not until after Hitler came to power that they united and formed for the first time a central organization to represent their interests in politics. Before 1933 German Jews made several attempts to create a separate political platform or pressure group. The first venture had perhaps the best prospects of success. It started around 1900, a time when the ideological divisions that later polarized the German Jews into liberal, Orthodox, and Zionist camps were not yet strongly felt, and when cooperation between liberal and Zionist leaders was possible. Despite what appeared to be an opportune moment, all efforts came to naught. Historians can argue at length over whether or not German Jews committed a grave error in failing to form an independent political front, and whether or not it was possible in Germany for Jews to follow the example of Russian Jews and form an autonomous party. A more fruitful discussion will begin only when historians consider why Jewish leaders, who had stood within the existing party framework since 1848, decided in the late 1890's to organize independently of the liberals to whom they felt indebted for emancipation, and why they never achieved their goal. This essay attempts to answer these questions and to shed light on the political behavior of Jewish notables in Wilhelmian Germany.

Type
Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 3 , Issue 1-2 , March 1970 , pp. 73 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1970

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23. JHGA, INV 124/I, minutes of the board meeting on Oct. 10, 1900.

24. Israelitische Wochenschrift (1902), Nr. 30, p. 468.

25. Bernhard Breslauer, a Berlin lawyer, was chairman of the Liberal Association, a party of liberal Jews in the Berlin community.

26. Israelitische Wochenschrift (1902), Nr. 30, p. 468; Fuchs, Eugen, Um Deutschtum und Judentum. Gesammelte Reden und Aufsätze (Frankfurt, 1919), p. 275.Google Scholar

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31. CZA, A15/VII/31, Bodenheimer to Philippson, Oct. 10, 1900; Philippson to Bodenheimer, Oct. 18, 1900.

32. CZA, A15/I/8a, Bodenheimer to Philippson, Nov. 2, 1900.

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36. Ibid. (1899), Nr. 4, p. 212.

37. Ibid. (1899), Nr. 5, p. 278.

38. Ibid. (1899), Nr. 12, p. 654.

39. Ibid.

40. Fuchs, Eugen, Um Deutschtum und Judentum, pp. 56–57.Google Scholar See also the speech that Fuchs made in Frankfurt in 1899 in Im Deutschen Reich (1899), Nr. 4, p. 227.

41. Im Deutschen Reich (1896), Nr. II, p. 586, and Nr. 12, p. 636.

42. Im Deutschen Reich (1896), Nr. 3, p. 172.

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46. CZA, A142/63, Adolf Friedemann to Alfred Klee, 01 2, 1901; K11/58, Arthur Hantke to Carl Jeremias, Jan. 8, 1901.

47. CZA, A15/I/8a, Bodenheimer to Horwitz, Dec. 11, 1900.

48. CZA, A142/63, Friedemann to Klee, Jan. 2, 1901. In his account of what happened, Philippson denied that Friedemann had been provoked by anti-Zionist comments. See CZA, A15/VII/31, Philippson to Bodenheimer, Mar. 12, 1901.

49. Israelitisches Familienblatt (1901), Nr. 11, pp. 1–2; CZA, A142/63, Friedemann to Klee, [Jan. 1901]. Friedemann related that Fuchs found acceptable that part of his resolution calling for a Jewish congress whose delegates “are chosen by general, equal, and direct suffrage.”

50. CZA, A8/30/3, Philippson to Friedemann, Jan. 7, 1901; A15/I/9, Bodenheimer to Friedemann, Feb. 7, 1901.

51. Their speeches were printed in the Israelitische Wochenschrift (1901), Nr. 4, pp. 56–57, and Nr. 11, pp. 168–69.

52. Israelitisches Familienblatt (1901), Nr. 3, p. 2, and Nr. 5, p. 3; Im Deutschen Reich (1901), Nr. I, p. 42.

53. CZA, A15/VII/31, Philippson to Bodenheimer, Mar. 3, 1901, and Horwitz to Bodenheimer, Mar. 9, 1901.

54. CZA, A15/VII/10, Friedemann to David Wolffsohn, Jan. 29, 1901, and Friedemann to Bodenheimer, Feb. 12, 1901.

55. CZA, A15/1/9, Bodenheimer to Friedemann, Feb. 7, 1901: A15/I/8a, Bodenheimer to Katzenstein, Feb. 4, 1901. Bodenheimer attempted to redress Friedmann's mistakes in a speech which he gave in Berlin on May 1, 1901. See his Zionismus und Judentag (Cologne, 1901), pp. 12ff.Google Scholar See also the letter of the Hanover Zionists criticizing Friedemann's tactics, Feb. 27, 1901, in CZA, A15/VII/11.

56. Israelitisches Familienblatt (1901), Nr. 46, pp. 1–2; (1903), Nr. 50, p. 3.

57. Verband der Deutschen Juden, Stenographischer Bericht über die erste Hauptversammlung (Berlin, 1905), p. 69;Google ScholarStenographischer Bericht über die zweite Hauptversammlung (Berlin, 1907), pp. 46–47.Google Scholar

58. JHGA, Kn II A II/4 and 5, stencilled minutes of the board meetings of the Verband.

59. Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (1907), Nr. 14, p. 162.

60. JHGA, Kn II A II/4, stencilled minutes of the committee meeting on the organization of the Verband, Nov. 29, 1903.

61. Verband der Deutschen Juden, Stenographischer Bericht, pp. 54–55.

62. JHGA, Kn II A II/4, minutes of the meeting of the committee on Jan. 7, 1906.

63. From the remarks recorded in the minutes of the meeting of the Verband's executive board on Aug. 27, 1905, and from Jehudi's rebuttal in Nr. 24 of the Israelitisches Familienblatt, one can identify Philippson as Jehudi.

64. Israelitisches Familienblatt (May 25, 1905), Nr. 21, pp. 1–2.

65. JHGA, Kn II A II/4, minutes of the board meeting on Aug. 27, 1905.

66. JHGA, Kn II A II/4, minutes of the board meeting on Apr. 3, 1910.

67. Pulzer, Peter G. J., The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria (New York, 1964), pp. 192ff.Google Scholar

68. General-Anzeiger für die gesamten Interessen des Judentums (1908), Nr. 4, Nr. 5, Nr. 17, Nr. 18, and Nr. 21; Jüdische Rundshau (1908), Nr. 23, pp. 206ff. In 1907 Chancellor Bülow formed a coalition of parties to defend the government's colonial policy against the opposition of the Social Democrats and the Centrists. To keep the “Block” together, Progressive deputies soft-pedalled criticism of the government. The “Block” politics of the Progressives provoked two Zionists, Klee and Kollenscher, to demand a break with them and a separate Jewish political platform. At first, the liberal Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums saw the “Block” as the start of another liberal era in Germany, but by the end of January 1908, it expressed misgivings, and in June, it attacked the Progressives. See Nr. 5, p. 51, and Nr. 26, p. 302.

69. Im Deutschen Reich (1907), Nr. 3, pp. 143–44.

70. Im Deutschen Reich (1912), Nr. 10, p. 466; Israelitisches Gemeindeblatt (1912), Nr. 43, p. 455.

71. Israelitische Wochenschrift (1903), Nr. 43, p. 605; JHGA, INV 124/I, minutes of the board meeting of the Centralverein on Sept. 10, 1903.

72. JHGA, INV 124/I, minutes of the board meeting of the Centralverein on Feb. 1, 1904; Im Deutschen Reich (1902), Nr. 8, p. 424; (1904), Nr. 5, p. 293; Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus (1904), Nr. 16, p. 122; (1907), Nr. 18, p. 138.

73. Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (1900), Nr. 41, p. 485; (1907), Nr. 14, p. 162; Israelitische Wochenschrift (1901), Nr. 12, pp. 180–81.

74. General-Anzeiger (1904), Nr. 22. On Bodenheimer's cordial relationship with non-Zionist notables, see CZA, A15/I/8c, Bodenheimer to the Zionist Actionskomite in Vienna, Dec. 8, 1904.

75. JHGA, Kn II A II/4, stencilled circular of the Freie Vereinigung für die Interessen des orthodoxen Judentums; letter of the Verband der Synagogen-Gemeinden Westfalens to the Königsberg community, Jan. 6, 1902. See also Freie Vereinigung für die Interessen des orthodoxen Judentums, Mitteilungen an die Mitglieder (1901), Nr. 13, pp. 13ff.; Der Israelit (1901), Nr. 6, p. 126, Nr. 20, p. 462, and Nr. 28/29, pp. 663–64.

76. CZA, A11/25, Paul Nathan to Arthur Hantke, June 19, 1906; AII/32/20/2, two letters of Berthold Timendorfer to Hantke, both June 21, 1906; JHGA, Kn II A II/4, argument of the Danzig delegate at the meeting of the committee planning the Verband, Nov. 29, 1903. See also Fabius Schach's criticism of Jewish notables reprinted in General-Anzeiger (1908), Nr. 42.

77. Jaeger, Hans, Unternehmer in der deutschen Politik, 1890–1918 (Bonn, 1967), pp. 130, 289–90.Google Scholar

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79. Auerbach, Fritz, Der Antisemitismus und das freisinnige Judentum (Frankfurt, 1893), pp. 19–20;Google ScholarIsraelitisches Gemeindeblatt (1904), Nr. 13, p. 122: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (1897), Nr. 28, pp. 326–27.

80. Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (1905), Nr. 45, p. 538.

81. Ibid. (1912), Nr. 31, p. 366.

82. Feder, Ernst, Paul Nathan. Politik und Humanitāt. Ein Lebensbild (Berlin, 1929), pp. 58, 64–65.Google Scholar

83. The speech of Landtag deputy Oscar Cassel in Drei Vorträge vom Vortragsabend des Liberalen Vereins für die Angelegenheiten der jüdischen Gemeinde zu Berlin (Berlin, 1907), pp. 3ff.Google Scholar; Fuchs, Eugen, Um Deutschtum und Judentum, p. 132;Google ScholarIm Deutschen Reich (1895), Nr. 3, p. 120; (1897), Nr. 7/8, pp. 366–68; Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (1890), Nr. 17, pp. 237–38.

84. Im Deutschen Reich (1903), Nr. 10, p. 606; Israelitisches Familienblatt (1903), Nr. 38, pp. 1–2; see the letter of Kommerzienrat Gallinger of Nürnberg in the Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus (1903), Nr. 36, p. 282.

85. Im Deutschen Reich (1903), Nr. 10, p. 581.

86. Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus (1897), Nr. 18, pp. 142–43; (1903), Nr. 35, p. 276; Nr. 36, pp. 281–82. See also the essay of Carl Blell, a Progressive Landtag deputy, in the General-Anzeiger (1907), Nr. 30.

87. Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (1892), Nr. 9, pp. 98–99.

88. Ibid. (1893), Nr. 23, p. 265; (1898), Nr. 22, p. 254.

89. Ibid. (1898), Nr. 48, p. 566; Im Deutschen Reich (1902), Nr. 5, p. 297.

90. Im Deutschen Reich (1901), Nr. 6/7, p. 351.

91. Israelitisches Familienblatt (1901), Nr. 3, p. 2; Nr. 5, pp. 1–2; Israelitische Wochenschrift (1901), Nr. 12, pp. 180ff.

92. The reactions of Progressive newspapers were quoted with approval in the Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus (1900), Nr. 40, pp. 318ff.

93. Toury, Jacob, Die politischen Orientierungen, pp. 293–94;Google ScholarToury, Jacob, “Attempts at the Establishment of a Central Organization of German Jews (1893–1920),” p. 67.Google Scholar